Song of a Traveling Preacher Woman

Song of a Traveling Preacher Woman
Renee Emerson

Jonah ran the other way,
but not Jareena Lee.

She stood in the pew to save
the preacher’s piety.

She let the sermon roll a river
off her tongue, a spirit wave;

she poured out the word of God
on every head to save.

If a stone can cry, why
not a woman, why
not a woman as immovable,
as indestructible, as stone?