There But for the Grace of God Go I
—Machine, 1979
—Last of all, as to one born abnormally, he appeared to me…but by the grace of God I am what I am…” — Corinthians 15:8—10
a piece of coral i look and fold
outside me into air. like how a piece
of paper curls out from itself in
flame. into air. the ash
follows the coral where it wriggles. like it isn’t
made of stone. like i didn’t make it.
i’m lying on the ground. the ground
a part of me. i can point at it and
say that. is mine. is me. is that really.
the coral that turns into itself. its
approaching. the tip of the coral is
opening its pore. its largest pore is
becoming a mouth. everything in
the seizure is becoming. it wants to
be a box-mouthed lamb of
fingernails. you are a fingernail in
the box of my loving. the lamb
wants to say. was there a choice
against the ground. the fingernails
are my fingernails. the lamb is pink.
the coral wasn’t pink. it contains its
burning. it won’t leave —
— leaves contain its burning. won’t
it pink coral. pink lamb. the is
wasn’t it my fingernails.
the fingernails are choice. the the
ground against there a loving lamb
was wants to say. the box of my
fingernail in the you are a
fingernails-box mouthed of lamb
seizure wants. it is becoming to be
a becoming a everything. in the
mouth pore opening its largest
pore its is approaching coral tip of
the. the is itself coral. that turns its
into really. mine is me. that is that.
is the part of me i can point at and
say it. the ground on the lying i’m a
ground. didn’t it make like stone. of
i made coral wriggles. isn’t it like
where it follows into flame. the ash
the air. itself paper out in from
curls of outside. into air how like
me a piece a piece of coral i fold
and look
ξ
Benjamin Bartu is a poet & writer. He is the winner of the Blood Orange Review’s inaugural poetry contest, and a Fishtrap Fellowship finalist. His writing has appeared or is forthcoming in The Adroit Journal, The Tahoma Literary Review, Witness Magazine, GASHER, The Hunger, & elsewhere. An Associate Editor at Palette Poetry & Editor at Literistic, he can be found on twitter @alampnamedben.