Weekly Read: “Saint Elizabeth” by Rachel Contreni Flynn
BLR’s Weekly Read brings you one outstanding story, poem, or essay from our archive. This week’s read is “Saint Elizabeth” by Rachel Contreni Flynn, from Issue 18.
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1.
A scarecrow came for breakfast, sat in my sister’s seat and refused to eat. It combed its straw hair with shredded hands, fluffed its limbs and made chit-chat, happy faces, horrid little predictions.
2.
She was blonde and tough
and flawless in her
flute-playing. I thought
she played to wake me
on winter mornings,
the sweet Gavotte.
I was wrong….
Why this poem?
“I think the reason why this poem has stuck with me all these years is because I believed it was so honest. It’s so hard to talk about the terror and it’s so hard to talk about what’s dangerous, especially in terms of someone that you love. It’s such a brave poem.
I’m so grateful that we always have poetry as a tool, throughout our lives, to bear witness, to acknowledge, to wish, to curse, to document and express meaning. Rachel has done that beautifully in this poem. I think it will stay with me for years to come.”
– Stacy Nigliazzo, BLR reader, poet, nurse
More from Rachel
Rachel Contreni Flynn’s second full-length collection, Tongue, won the Benjamin Saltman Award from Red Hen Press, and her chapbook, Haywire, was published by Bright Hill Press. Her first book, Ice, Mouth, Song, was published in 2005 by Tupelo Press, after winning the Dorset Prize. Rachel lives north of Chicago with her husband and their two children.
Rachel participated in our 2024 Narrative Arc, which paired a reader and writer together to discuss the journey of a written work from being crafted, to published, to read. Rachel’s interview was conducted by Stacy Nigliazzo and contains not only insight into Rachel’s poem, but also a thoughtful conversation between two people that care about health and the writing process. And you can hear Rachel read “Saint Elizabeth”!