circling around god
by mila sherman

this seasoned disease i bring along
and bear close to me
is a shapeshifting flower,
a luminous echo,
an incoherent stain,
with satin claw marks on the
hem of oblivion’s skirt

oh prismatic moments of being,
please guard me from the
eternal unbearable light!
how raw, how insatiable,
how silent and deep
is its listening

for i am but a romantic specter,
a spectral song
stitched into a most indulgent and muffled hem
languishing, deep within
the hollows of shame.

saw out the memories from my dress where
you are but a glimpse of god, clouded,
laced with too much credit

let the light be a shivering sentence,
a burning, incorruptible star,
for my nerves are twisted around straws,
and my loved ones are grasping
for the hem of the ocean floor to open.