Spiritual Warfare


I'm always thinking about Lot's wife,
wonder what her neighbors thought
when she packed her tunics and cooking pots 
and left town without so much as a fare-thee-well. 
Dave, the guy I work with says, “It's because 
she was a sinful woman in a sinful town. 
You know where the word sodomy comes from.” 
I tell him, “Sodomy's been made legal in Texas. 
I read it in the paper yesterday.” 
Dave has been known to get down on his knees 
and pray before a computer, but it never seems
to work because it’s always messed up.
“You see, Dave, if she'd had a name, maybe someone 
could have called to her, maybe she might 
not have turned back.” I'm obsessed with this, 
it's true, but I can't get the no-name-pillar-of-salt thing 
out of my head, and this woman 
who probably left with wash on the line 
and goat stew simmering on the fire.
And then there are those two daughters 
who later lay with their father, there being no 
other men worth their salt in that mountain town 
where they ended up.  “Good thing she wasn't around
to see that kind of sodomy,” I say. “Women 
need guidance. Remember Eve?”
I tell him, “Let's agree to disagree on this.”
He glares at me; his face turns red; pimples
stand out like, like angry mountains, I think.
“Besides, Dave, Lot lingered 
and God took mercy on him. I want 
mercy for her. And a name, Dave, 
for God's sake. Please call her 
something besides ‘Lot's wife’.”
Dave takes my hand, says, “Kneel with me 
and let's pray for you, my disagreeable friend, 
and for all those sick people in Texas.”
Meanwhile, the computer flashes:
this program has performed an illegal operation.
“How about Loretta?” I ask, thinking of my best friend 
from high school. I shuck off his hand and add,
“It's a good name, and Mary's been used.”


Spiritual Warfare was previously published in Rattle: 21, online at Artsforge.com, and in the chapbook Virgins on the Rocks (Parallel Press: 2004).