Susan Slaviero / Apocrypha

 Susan Slaviero is also the author of An Introduction to the Archetypes (Shadowbox Press) from Apocrypha a dream of burial at Via Nomentana January 21, 1957. Agnes wakes to icy floors, exhales vapor from her lips. Last night, she sewed an altar cloth, dreamt of Roman boys burned blind by gusts of sand, by visions of black lambs and white, tender thighs. Her mother burns incense on formica countertops, slices hearts of palm, something red, her spine bent beneath a green shirtwaist. Agnes offers her a cheek, rubs salt into a paper cut, makes the sign of the cross inside the kitchen doorframe, her bracelets clanking like broken fetters.