Friday 3 August 2012

Sudden Prose Reprints: "The Devil Got into Her" by Kathryn Maris



The Devil Got into Her




1 The woman appealed to the Doctor, for she could not be cured. The Doctor had the likeness of the Lord, and the Lord spoke through him: ‘You are overcome by a demon. When it is slain, it will harm you no longer.’
2 The woman asked how the demon should be slain, and the Doctor said there was a man but that she must be the one to find him.
3 The woman found a man who said he could slay the demon, but he did not, for he was a demon himself and full of trickery. So the woman slew the man and was not punished, for the King of the land was glad to be rid of him.
4 She returned to the Doctor and told of her failure. ‘Tell me the name of this demon that has made me its home.’ But this he would not reveal.
5 So again she set out. An angel took the form of a crone and said, ‘Find the man in the west whose name is “Slay”’.
6 So the woman found that man and he said to her ‘God hath forbidden me to rid you of this demon. But in the city to the east there is a man who can help you.’ And he told her where to find him.
7 The man in the east was kind, so the woman came to live with him. But he was kind to the demon too, for he did not kill it, but placed it in a box. And the woman was healed, but still she feared the demon and viewed the box askance.




Kathryn Maris






"The Devil Got into Her" first appeared in Poetry London.  Kathryn Maris was born in New York and moved to London in 1999. She received a BA from Columbia University and an MA in creative writing from Boston University. She has won a Pushcart Prize, an Academy of American Poets award and fellowships from the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Yaddo and other artists’ residencies. The Book of Jobs, her first collection, was published by Four Way Books in 2006 and her second collection, God Loves You, will appear with Seren in 2013. 



1 comment:

Unknown said...

This is written in such an interesting way. I like the style. I think it adds to the story. I like your writing. Well done.