Issue 6.1 Fall 2010

 

cover image

 

Darkness

Chloe Nelson

 

The pupils in her eyes growing in diameter
like the spider weaving his web round.
The hot cauldron bubbling over inside
her - yet her skeleton cringes tighter
against the cold sweat-ing wall.

 

A foil gum wrapper – the only luminescence
present – she scurries towards it,
spurning my company. I urge
her to stop her carping.
Yet she searches still,
As her clock-stamped father always has,
for their invidious incandescence.
First fire, than lanterns, and now 12-watt bulbs
to blotch my beauty or fill my void that ceases
to exists.

 

That same night,
that she tore from my grasp,
I soaked in her tears
as she sealed her lids and forgot
about the worrisome day.
Unconscious, I let
innocence sway in her soul.

 

Faithfully, I stood before
the sun , moon , and stars –
beside God. And good
was light and man, but me –
a beloved saint – I was not!
My dignity, instead, cast into the clutch
of Lucifer in Hades.

 

Yet, I still shaded
her in her mother’s womb
When she was too weak to bear
the burns of the world.

 

So should I not be distraught?
Because she has distorted me
and depraved me, like debased
bibles, from my sacred intentions-
I only ask to be hallowed.

Euphemism Campus Box 4240 Illinois State University, Normal, IL 61790-4240