by Megan McDermott I am ready to detest you until the Etsy listing shows me your Joan of Arc illustration, and I am swept up in a moment of girl power feminism and/or bisexual swooning for my imagined crush: Joan, the saint I would date if I had to date a saint. Onward Christian soldiers becoming acceptable if it’s me and Joan. Yes, let’s be. Me and her both “brave, bold heroine”s, though I’ll wear a dress and let my hair swing across my lower back. I would bumble on battlefields but could maybe match her “flaming spirit,” being both woman preacher and drama queen. Let’s be Christian soldiers and never die. Let’s be Christian soldiers and forget also how to kill. Let’s be Christian soldiers, enflame our spirits with God, with each other, with tongue.
Megan McDermott is a poet and Episcopal priest living in Western Massachusetts. In 2018, she graduated from Yale Divinity School with a certificate from the Institute of Sacred Music, an interdisciplinary program dedicated to religion and the arts. Her debut chapbook Prayer Book for Contemporary Dating will be out later this year from Ethel Zine and Micro-Press, and recent poems have been published in The Night Heron Barks, Miniskirt Magazine, 8 Poems, and Amethyst Review. Find out more at meganmcdermottpoet.com.
