RUBY
“And he came and raised her up by taking hold of her hand, and the fever left her, and she began to serve them.”
—Mark 1:31
Night after night, in dreams
I sorted a tessellation of tiny tasks—fitting,
fitting, turning the shards that slice my life
and pare my fingers. It was often less
trouble to stop turning, to rise after first sleep
and start that waiting work
by moonlight. I heard my spinning
as some sort of lullaby—the stores of beans
I sifted for stones, a vat of beads
for prayer. The kneading down of dough
subdues the sounds of me, a girl
on a hillside, who smelled sharp herbs
I ran through, and shouted to the sun.
About the Author
Mary Ann Dimand was born in Southern Illinois where Union North met Confederate South, and her work is shaped by kinships and conflicts: economics and theology, farming and feminism and history. Dimand holds an MA in economics from Carleton University, an MPhil from Yale University, and an MDiv from Iliff School of Theology. Some of her previous publication credits include: The History of Game Theory Volume I: From the Beginnings to 1945; The Foundations of Game Theory; and Women of Value: Feminist Essays on the History of Women in Economics, among others. Her work is published or forthcoming in The Birds We Piled Loosely, Bitterzoet Magazine, The Borfski Press, The Broken Plate, Chapter House Journal, Euphony Journal, Faultline, FRiGG Magazine, Green Hills Literary Lantern, The Hungry Chimera, The MacGuffin, Mantis, Misfit Magazine, Penumbra, Scarlet Leaf Review, Slab, Sweet Tree Review, and Tulane Review.
