Offerings Offerings for the Virgin Mary hang from the shrine of San Xavier del Bac on an Amerindian reservation near Tucson: women donate flowers and scarves, photos of babies and newlyweds with notes pleading for her protection. One wife leaves a hat with an image of her husband and scrawls on the brim the date of his death. A skeptical Jew, I look on bemused. But then I grieve. We all feel so vulnerable, worry about our dear ones, want to protect them, fear the sudden blow of fate. I pray for people I've never met, wish their dreams fulfilled, encompass all of us sojourners on this planet full of mountain beauty and primal sisterhood.
Janet Ruth Heller is the past president of the Michigan College English Association and a past president of the Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature. She has a Ph.D. in English Language and Literature from the University of Chicago. She has published four poetry books: Nature’s Olympics (Wipf and Stock, 2021), Exodus(WordTech Editions, 2014), Folk Concert: Changing Times (Anaphora Literary Press, 2012), and Traffic Stop (Finishing Line Press, 2011); a scholarly book, Coleridge, Lamb, Hazlitt, and the Reader of Drama (University of Missouri Press, 1990); a middle-grade fiction chapter book for children, The Passover Surprise (Fictive Press, 2015, 2016); and a fiction picture book for children about bullying, How the Moon Regained Her Shape (Arbordale, 2006; 7th edition 2022), that has won four national awards, including a Children’s Choices award. Her website is https://www.janetruthheller.com
Amethyst Review 