“Woman with Bible on Eastchester-Dyer 5 Train”

by Elisabeth von Uhl

There is more God in this subway car
than the church limping by outside
on its sticks, offerings stained
by windows, stairs fallen, no one
believes that place can save. Faith
opens its toothless mouth and sucks
on pain to spread doors. With doors closed,
the subway conductor seizes more than those
wrapped in divine. Look beyond and see
the handprints on the subway
windows, she shouts.

Elisabeth von Uhl graduated in May 2005 with an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College. She now teaches composition at Fordham University in New York City. Her work has been published in Lumina, The Broome Review, Moria, and The Cortland Review. Also, her chapbook, Ocean Sea, is published by Finishing Line Press.