the everyday saint

by Eileen Murphy

monday nights

she volunteers at an abused women’s shelter

and thursdays

she dedicates to the rights of peruvians

and she visits an assisted living facility

every weekend

her clothes are from a thrift shop

she doesn’t own a television

and she’s used to starvation

eating only pop tarts

one day she gets a brain tumor

the tricky kind that multiplies

so quickly the surgeons

can’t keep up

no miracles ensue

a peruvian professor friend

moves in with her

stays till the end

soon she is gone gone gone

this is her song

* * * * *

A former Chicagolander, Eileen Murphy now lives 30 miles from Tampa. She received her Masters degree from Columbia College, Chicago. She teaches literature and English at Polk State College in Lakeland and has recently published poetry in Thirteen Myna Birds, Tinderbox (nominated for Pushcart Prize), Yes Poetry, The American Journal of Poetry, Rogue Agent, Deaf Poets Society, and other journals.