Another Doubting Sonnet—Renee Emerson

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Renee Emerson is a homeschooling mom of five, a Southern transplant living in the Midwest. She is the author of three poetry collections, the most recent of which is Church Ladies (Fernwood Press 2023), and she is the author of a middle-grade novel, Why Silas Miller Must Learn to Ride a Bike (Winter Goose Publishing). She reviews books for the whole family at www.reneeemerson.substack.com, and you can read her blog and poetry on her website: www.renee-emerson.com. 

Another Doubting Sonnet

by Renee Emerson

When my daughter broke her foot, misshapen
scream at the bottom of the slide we built
ourselves in joy of our children’s joy,
j
I wondered if God feels this too—
His cliffs and those that slip off them,
His oceans swiftly closing up lungs
like a thief in a jewelry box, emptied. 

So many beautiful creatures devouring
beautiful creatures, even as some of our own
bodies devour the body, cells innocent
in their hunger. I held her hand while she fell
asleep, a mercy, and skilled hands set it straight.

I forget—did God make death? Or only 
the knowledge of it—hanging on a tree, growing
brighter in the sun, so as to catch the eye. 

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Photo by D. Jameson RAGE on Unsplash