For All Mary Magdalenes

I seek mercy

for the women stoned

and their accomplice - the darkness of the night,

for the scent of clover and the branches

on which they fell intoxicated

like quails and woodcocks,

for their scorned lives,

for their love torments

unrelieved by compassion.

I seek mercy

for the moonlight and for the rubies

on their skin,

for the moonlight's dusk,

for the showers of their undone hair,

for the handful of silvery branches,

for their loves naked

and damned -

for all Mary Magdalenes.


Desanka Maksimović