Because she could not
   have him
she enclosed herself
in abstractions--

plainchants by
Hildegard of Bingen,
Gothic steeples,
Young Woman
with a Water Jug,
Third-class Carriage,
Liberty Leading
the People.

Because she could not
   have him
she needed
the hideous pain
of Christ
in the panel
by Grunewald
that says it could
have been worse.

Because she could not
   have him
she would settle
for nothing less.

by Charlotte E. Churchill

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