From the title, I get that N is Mary Magdalene and then guess that the "he" in the poem is Jesus. Or perhaps, if not the people themselves then stand-ins.
The poem seems to be taking place on a college campus and everything is going as normal when N (Magdalene) has a stray thought "I feel as if I’m going to lose something today", which once said suddenly seems prophetic. She rushes off to find/save Jesus or her modern version of Him.
It's a short poem which, where I found it on poets.org, is followed by an 'About this poem' where the author is interviewed. In that she says,
"This poem is from a series written in Mary Magdalene's voice. When my brother was dying from complications from the AIDS virus in his apartment in Rochester New York, I learned that other young men had come home to die, some of them in their old childhood bedrooms on the suburban streets they had left for big cities. Hardly anyone in those suburbs knew what was occurring in their midst. Later that year I heard a banging hammer—someone banging nails two or three yards away from my own apartment in Cambridge, and I thought of those young men dying at home, and of the crucifixion—how someone hearing the banging hammer might not be aware of the true nature of what was being done."
Without her explanation I would have doubted much more about this evasive poem. It's really kind of half-said. Which is fine, but not terribly illuminating. I do love her idea for the poem - but I think it's better captured in her prose than in her poem.
Favorite line: "You know it was funny because he seemed so well the night before"
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What do you think of today's poem?