Lisa Mullenneaux
In 9th grade
we read The Scarlet Letter,
Hester Prynne’s shaming
by the righteous Bay Colonists,
and every day we ate lunch
our own Hester Prynne sat alone,
her stomach noticeable under
a loose dress or heavy sweater
that stretched to her knees.
Sometimes she read a book,
listening to music. It was as if
if you got too close you might
catch pregnancy.
Whatever she read I hope
it wasn’t the Book of Shame,
that she graduated, got a PhD,
became the first female
United Nations Secretary-General,
the first to discover a new gene,
the first to conduct
her own opera at La Scala.
But will she ever forgive us?
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