Canton Writes 2023: The Sun is a Woman

The Canton Citizen, a sponsor of the annual Canton Writes contest, will once again publish the winning entries as space permits. The selection below, by Kate Devine, was the winning entry in the adult poetry category. Click here to read more winning entries from the 2023 contest.

The Sun is a Woman
By Kate Devine

“Through this holy anointing may the Lord in his love and mercy help you with the grace of the Holy Spirit. May the Lord who frees you from sin save you and raise you up.”

She makes the Sign of the Cross on my forehead with a concoction of SPF 40 and L’Oréal foundation.

Don’t forget the neck. There is no greater sin than seeing a woman with a 40-year-old face and a 60-year-old neck.

God forbid. That would leave me a behemoth. A sight to behold. Blinding anyone who looks me in the eye.

Little girls undergoing procedures to rectify God’s creation. Seeking guidance under the righteous hand of the scalpel. Of the newest procedure. Of the newest con to pay tithes to the industry.

Retinols, salicylic, glycolic, hyaluronic. Recited repeatedly like a prayer, these are the incantations I hear my sisters recite before bed.

Girls, bathe in the Fountain of Youth. It’s okay if you drown. Let you only enter Zion looking pretty.

This is not the baptism I yearn for. This is not why I wear the white dress.

I wash it all off my face, the oily residue escaping my pores as water rushes through my epidermis like an absolution. With every splash of this holy water the hands are removed from my neck. I am bare faced. I can breathe. I am free.

I ground myself into the Earth and breathe the Sun in through my nose and out through my pores. We merge as one, and with every inhale and exhale I am light.

The Sun is a woman, I think. Burning and fierce. Blinding when she first arrives, blushing when she leaves.

Heed to this word. The Sun is a Jezebel, a femme fatale B.C.  She is dangerous. She has the power to create cancer, even more wicked- wrinkles.

Heresy, I say! How blessed are we to be anointed by the Sun’s beauty. Do you not find your Mother to be the most beautiful thing you ever saw?

How lucky are we to bear witness to this. Experience this. How holy is this.

Aging is a privilege.

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