Hypatia

These are the things the Heavens turn on:
Finality, its star-pricked black & silver air–

my scrolls dropped where they found me:
the streets paved in blood where they dragged me–

rocks, stones, smashed slate:
Stripped & silk–shredded–

They split the fruits of me open:
a bowl of sweet–juiced flesh–

my bones, my blood, my hair:
in the hot, close air of a church they made a meal of me–

ripe fig even the starved birds would pluck & eat:
beak to beak & lip & eye & I, bone-shattered–

vermillion brilliant:
to Them I was never essential–

a voice whispering in the depths of a desert:
convincing you I am something else–

Woman, Teacher:
Heathen, Witch–

blood-jet of the God-vessel:
nailed out of His right mind–

It was not me, I had nothing to do with it:
The shards of the Parabalani fly like planets–

each slice of slate, the stars hurtle closer:
Where is your Walker On Water?–

I do not see Him:
He is not here–

Above me, silver bodies:
all those gold–spun suns–

I take them into me:
Here is my blood on the stones–

I give it to Them:
My last breaths merely wind–

My riven blood:
water–

Opening slice by slice:
the Heavens–

Celestial:
I rise & rise–

unto–
until–

Lorcán Black is an Irish poet, living in London. His poetry has been published or is forthcoming in The Tomahawk Creek Review, Stirring, Letters Journal, The Rush, Grim&Gilded, New Writing Scotland, Snapdragon, Connecticut River Review, Northern New England Review, The Los Angeles Review & The Stinging Fly, amongst numerous others. He is a numerous Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee and has had his fiction shortlisted and longlisted for the Two Sylvias Prize and the Paris Literary Prize. His first collection, Rituals, was published by April Gloaming Publishing in 2019. His second collection, Strange Husbandry, is forthcoming from Seren Books in June 2024.