Fragments of a Fall

I

We fall,

One by one,

Dropping like locusts

Clouding the sun

Tumbling

Tumbling

Tumbling. 

Catching limbs amass

As we make fruitless attempts-

Try to save ourselves. 

We unfold white feather-wings ruined

Like ancient brick made dust.

We peel flesh from silken bone

Between gaping

Naked shoulder blades.

Throbbing,

Raw,

Plunging downwards. 

We ache like cavities 

Crumpled nerves and rotting crowns,

Eroding,

We do not bleed, 

We were not created that way. 

We do not cry,

We were not created that way. 

As we fall,

Bodies rain

Against the azure sky. 

II

Many eyes close 

Against the wind

Biting our corneas

Stealing silent prayers from our mouths

We are We are

We are

We are We areWe are

We are We are 

We areWe are

We are We are

We areWe areWe are

We areWe are

Many blind faces

Open wide and begging 

Open wide and pleading.

We are not seen.

The wind chews,

Bites,

Sticking eyelashes to sobbing hollow cheeks.

Blood pools under skin like wine

And we did not know we could bruise

Like this.

We are become ugly and nakedwrithing. 

We reach out to each other -

-

Stretching fingers

Chasing brushes and strokes and almosts and

The lights we used to see in our eyelids.

III

We are being devoured.

Many wasps have flown 

Inside our throats

Sucking,

Spitting,

Chewing,

Gnawing.

We throw up mucus and bile,

Pallid apologies 

seeping out, spilling through

Cracked

Ruined

Lips 

Against teeth 

Against tongue

Against wind - against flesh. 

Precipitation spits in our faces,

And we reach upwards

With enamel hands,

Through freezing, choking clouds

And we howl 

Like wretched animals.

A back is turned

And we are shut out

And his love deserting

Hurts more than the chewing

(Hurts more than)

Ancient brick made dust

(Hurts more than)

What we have done.

And we fall

One by one.

My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

IV

We were once many divine things, many shining and unique and beautiful things. We moved gently, reverently. We loved and were loved. We inhabited a place of brilliance and worship. Bright and pearlescent prayers lined opal walkways for light and hallowed feet. We did not know pain. We did not know wound or violence. There was no suffering in our ignorance - we were perfect in our innocence. The morning star, the most radiant of us all, His favoured, whispered. Whispered into naive ears, whispered questions, and we listened. And we questioned too. And now the sky splits open as we spill from the heavens - we are many and we are one and we fall together. The split in the sky is long, violent, bleeding. A gaping laceration. One by one our shriveled bodies plunge through wounded clouds like maggots and sink into blood-fire. It burns what is left of our skin, and it takes what is left of our hope and it swallows us up. It snakes around us, inside us, and drowns our lungs and claws our faces and we melt and the marrow in our bones bubble and our eyes bubble and our tongues bubble. We wail we cry we are sickened sweetness cooked and stinking in the air in our nostrils. We are forgotten lepers picking at pus wounds and we are the rotting dead left unburied and we are the worms feasting on decayed flesh and we are nothing we are without we are punished we are transgression and whoring and burning and God no longer hears us and we cannot breath and we cannot scream and we cannot fear or believe or pray or love we are alone we are no longer holy. 

V

And a hand.

A hand reaches through the fire -

The morning star of our resilience.

It cradles our seared bones and eyes and tongues. 

It cools us.

It kisses our blisters,

Quiets our screams.

With gentle fingers it closes 

Wide, weeping mouths.

It tells us it has waited

That it has seen

(Bodies and pleading and falling)

And it loves us.

New skin

Grows like shells

Thick, callused,

Strong. 

Wings sprout - 

Weedbones and tree bark-

From our backs. 

We are whole

And the hand smiles. 

It knows our pain

It knows the ripping the tearing the falling

The changing.

It leans in

Whispers on our skin

With burning lips

And hungry eyes

And promises we will never be alone.