Saint Markella’s Cathedral and Other Poems by Madeleine Cravens

Madeleine Cravens won First Place in Narrative’s Thirteenth Annual Poetry Contest and in the 2020 Narrative 30 Below Contest. A 2022–2024 Stegner Fellow at Stanford, she received her BA from Oberlin College and her MFA from Columbia University. FIRST PLACE WINNER IN ASTORIA, Leo and I find a small church on our way to the river. Inside, saints stare from portraits, fingers raised in code. Leo’s wearing his Adidas Sambas, praying or trying to, and I find comfort in his decades-long commitment to this brand of shoes. He loves them. He does not look further. He says my problem is that I refuse to settle, and I wonder if he is trying to demonstrate patience as we sit together below the domed ceiling on chairs made from ornately carved wood. This is the best trick of divine architecture— that I will exit the church and try to live better, a bit more devoutly, taking pleasure in everything, a plate of sliced potatoes fried in oil, a carafe of cheap white wine. FOLLOW US:

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