Caroline Reddy

The Butchering of a Child

An exorcism recording
played into the night,
and pews shifted. 
 
I found my prayer book 
underneath the bunk.
 
I flipped open Boy’s Life
in secret while 
others hummed along
and praised hymns.
 
I bowed my head
as we huddled 
around a campfire 
and roasted our sins:
 
wrists burst open 
and scriptures spilled
screams of the possessed:
 
trembling we watched 
a sacrificial banquet hall
waiting to prepare a child 
to be crucified.


Caroline Reddy’s work has been accepted or published in Active Muse, Bethlehem Writers Roundtable, Braided Way, Calliope, Clinch, Grey Sparrow, Deep Overstock, Fresh Wods Magazine, Indefinite Space, International Human Rights Arts Festival, Journal of Expressive WritingLiterary Heist, The Opiate, Quail Bell and Star*line among others. In the fall of 2021, her poem “A Sacred Dance” was nominated for the Best of The Net prize by Active Muse. Caroline Reddy was born in Shiraz, Iran and is currently working on a collection of poems titled Shake the Atmosphere to Reclaim an Empty Moment.