Prayer for the Intercession of St. Teresa of Ávila, Patron Saint of Migraines
O namesake saint
of visions and ecstasy,
pray for me—
I am death dogged
and bone bleeding.
I will boil wild Dasye roots
with a dozen greate earthewormes
and eat them or pound them into a paste
to smear across my face.
I will say 100 Our Fathers
and 200 Hail Mary’s—
O barefoot nun, Doctor
of the Church,
do you remember me?
I made a pilgrimage
to your city of toothed walls,
knelt to venerate
your twisted finger
in its glittering reliquary.
O Patron, Sister,
if you can’t take away my pain,
I understand—
but send me a sign
that you believe:
reach out the shriveled phalanges
of your holy hand
so your faith
can heal me.
*italicized text from Mrs. Corylon’s Booke of Diuers Medecines, Broothes, Salues, Waters, Syroppes, and Oyntementes (1607), an early modern household recipe book
Published in Cider Press Review, Volume 26, Issue 4.
Therese Gleason’s work has appeared in 32 Poems, Cincinnati Review, Indiana Review, Lunch Ticket, New Ohio Review, Rattle and elsewhere. She is author of three chapbooks: Hemicrania (forthcoming, Chestnut Review, 2024), about living with chronic migraine; Matrilineal (Finishing Line, 2021; Honorable Mention, Jean Pedrick Chapbook Prize, New England Poetry Club); and Libation (co-winner, 2006 South Carolina Poetry Initiative Competition). Originally from Louisville, Kentucky, she lives with her family in central Massachusetts, where she teaches language and literacy to multilingual kindergarteners in the Worcester Public Schools.
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