Ten generations of Peruvian
Thumbs smoothed Christ
into a silvery woman
converting this old crucifix
into a mariafix. Hail Mary’s
of devout peasants whorled

Mary from Golgotha into heaven
with their practice, uplifting her
onto the three-fold throne
of heaven. Their faith, like hers,
engendering a fourth seat—
a quaternary—balancing male
divinity. All three antique inches
of her open a channel for a more
humane theology to swirl up
and out of the sea of chaos
—polyphonic mystery guiding
man to mate woman; woman
to mate man; man to mate man;
woman woman—because all
around us, “God is mating God.”