The Atlantic | May 2002 | Who The Meek Are Not

[an error occurred while processing this directive]

Home
Current Issue
Back Issues
Premium Archive
Forum
Site Guide
Feedback
Search

Subscribe
Renew
Gift Subscription
Subscriber Help

Browse >>
  Books & Critics
  Fiction & Poetry
  Foreign Affairs
  Politics & Society
  Pursuits & Retreats

Subscribe to our free
e-mail newsletters

Contents | May 2002

In This Issue (Contributors)

More on poetry from The Atlantic Monthly.

Also by Mary Karr:
Beauty and the Shoe Sluts (1998)

The Atlantic Monthly | May 2002

Who The Meek Are Not

by Mary Karr

.....

          Not the bristle-bearded Igors bent
under burlap sacks, not peasants knee-deep
          in the rice-paddy muck,
nor the serfs whose quarter-moon sickles
          make the wheat fall in waves
they don't get to eat. My friend the Franciscan
          nun says we misread
that word meek in the Bible verse that blesses them.
          To understand the meek
(she says) picture a great stallion at full gallop
          in a meadow, who—
at his master's voice—seizes up to a stunned
          but instant halt.
So with the strain of holding that great power
          in check, the muscles
along the arched neck keep eddying,
          and only the velvet ears
prick forward, awaiting the next order.

What do you think? Discuss this article in Post & Riposte.

[an error occurred while processing this directive]