The Strange

I have stories for you,
Which I have believed without seeing:

A woman and a man fall in love.
They were drunk, high on
the Spirit that binds us all,
which they fed to each other
with silver teaspoons
out of a brown leather bottle.

A woman is raped.
They were looking for her husband
but her husband wasn’t home.
He was out, tending to his flock.
When she came home
she was naked, bloody and
covered in glass.
Her husband came to America
to ask for prayers.

A woman asks for food,
but she calls God
a different name.
And so she starves,
along with her child.

A woman weeps
as a criminal dies,
whose only crime
is to be born whole
and love those who could not
love him in return.
He asks her later,
“Why are you crying?”
And so she stops;
and learns to shrug
her shoulders instead.

Which of these stories is strangest?
On my best behavior
I wish it were stranger to be so cruel.