Nekyian Arkhé
I asked a god to give me a sign –
had one heard me I would recognize.
Alone I had to stand trial to the divine.
Submerged my prayers to a greater design:
an experiment in wisdom exorcized.
I asked a god to give me a sign.
Apocalyptic rebirth scorned an earthen shrine,
no stone unturned to be sterilized.
Alone I had to stand trial to the divine,
with a greater fear to which I resign
my status in life. For one but to be paralyzed
as I asked a god to give me a sign.
Ruinous justice held high thine
words clenched in a jaw to be memorized.
Alone I had to stand trial to the divine.
Seraphim above malign
in a space where man once prophesied.
Once I asked a god to give me a sign–
I alone had to stand trial to the divine.
Timepeace
González-Torres, Félix “Untitled” (Perfect Lovers).
We come together, from mere seconds apart and then we dance, between our hands and fingers
beats the rhythm of Heaven. It flows – from me to you – to breathing your last breath in my arms, stilled. It hung
a veil across my psyche. A thrum of rage ringing echoes of what life left behind to your wake.
As I break from endless dreams of white, I see you in the dark. I reach for you to be wrenched apart, no
end this incessant volatile violation where you and I are doomed to fate.
Begin the dance again. We come together to grow apart where space and time were once the same.
Divided by fate, maligned and left adrift – I could hear your voice but knew nothing you said
with waves shaking me, left to right, swinging me free as I reached for your hand, to touch your fingers,
if there is a God, he will let me hold you once again. To covet that which I had lost eons ago.
Bridge the bow and rise to face the light of day I breathe life anew. Warmth sprawls in your glass prison,
the throes of vitality scream through your veins, to hands wantoned grip grappling with my skeletal frame,
refusing to be parted. We come together for nothing but divinity will have us part.
Lauren Girod is an Undergraduate English student at the University of Georgia, where they are studying the art of Creative Writing and Comparative Literature. When they aren’t writing poetry or fiction, they can be found cuddling their cat, Mr. Pumpkin, and worldbuilding the next great fantasy novel.