title: These most difficult tasks.
abstract: Abstract This poem articulates one of many breakup attempts between the author and her female lover. It describes the author's belief that the severing of this relationship felt no less catastrophic than a flaw in the cosmos. Both women in the poem believed Christianity and lesbianism to be incompatible and were caught in the struggle of the spiritual and sexual consequences of their relationship. The author focuses her attention at the end of the poem away from the cosmic chaos to the Creator of the cosmos, and finds that the real destruction occurred to her faith, and that restoring it is the hardest assignment of all.
authors.affiliation: a Sam Houston State University , Huntsville , TX , USA.
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Heise
keywords: Breakup attempts; consequences; ex-lover; faith; lesbian; spiritual and sexual; struggle