Therese L. Broderick teaches a weekly writing class to men in recovery. She has won local and national poetry awards and has been published locally and nationally. She lives in Albany with her husband and daughter.
POEMS
PROPER NAME
Don’t think that I was named for the ecstasy of Avila. My mother baptized me only for the roses of Lisieux–a peasant’s modesty, not a noble’s passion.
But so many of you have confused me
with that other Teresa
that I have long been possessed
by what I am not–quite mad
with denial.
A wrathful angel, I brandish swords
at the gates of my name–
above two letters “e,”
two accents “grave” and “aigu.”
Along with a flower’s perfume, O Mother, its thorns.
