her breasts

were cut from her chest
as she looked to God
in martyrdom

a few centuries after
Cleopatra bedded with snakes
that nipped her nipples;

grapes crushed 
under poisoned hips 
asleep to many of us

looking awake 
for the Renaissance painters
to lift their heads

assured by the public
with cupped hands
that He and their arrows 

through your body,
will be hung upside down, 
crucified, burned, stoned, and drowned

until burial alive 
became burial in pieces
scattered, looking 

up with hope.

in paradiso ego sum