This man I don't know
stopped me in a room full of paintings,
asked me if I knew that
Helonias was having an orgasm
as she clutched the head
of John the Baptist
and pierced the tongue
that spoke against her-
I had always thought
the woman was mourning.
Her face seemed contorted
in statuesque grief,
but, no -
She was cumming
as she mutilated
the first cousin of Christ.
How, strange, how brutal
a thing to know.