Birdie Marie Rodriguez

Birdie Marie Rodriguez is an accomplished folk artist and an emerging poet. She has a passion for storytelling, and is inspired by history, theology, nature and family. She has been published or is forthcoming in St. Katherine Review, Prometheus Dreaming, Esthetic Apostle, and Ever Eden Literary Journal. She lives on the Coastal Plains of North Carolina with her husband and three children.

Grace Changes Us and Change is Painful

“All human nature vigorously resists grace because grace changes us and the change is painful.” — Flannery O’Connor

you forget who

you are in

the attic

as you recover

a poppy

pressed in a wrinkle

in time

the blush stained

paper approaches

a a reflection

of yet another

bygone self

and you face

your brevity,

shake its hand

and say hello

you’ve been many

a thing

perched on the hem

of a dusky ocean

within

seasons that soften

into one another

unhurried

and deliberate

as how the colors

bleed in one

breath with

the turning

of a kaleidoscope

your faults peel

like sunburnt

skin and

worthy

aspirations fatten

over a dozen

infinities

to unmask

a yearning

for the holy

sting

you dwell

in the fever

of every conversion

on the shore

of a mammoth sea

that is undeterred

by the changing

of the guard

unbothered

by the glorious

ache

in the twang

of all your

goodbyes

Read Birdie’s work and more in Solum Journal Volume III.