Art: Lights by Elissa Shumaker

Ministration

 

Take a fingertip of fire

to a thread of magnesium

and watch the messiah himself

spring from the coil

 

brighter than any welder’s torch

that fuses a seam between

the arm and body of a tin man army

not yet buried with its emperor

but standing at attention

as if they’ve done this all before

 

they’ve been driven from your side

only to return and prostrate themselves at your feet

 

they will swallow the excuse

you spent three days perfecting

as if this could fill the void

shaped distinctly like god

 

and by the way

I know that Nineveh wasn’t built in a day

and that Las Vegas took at least two weeks

I know that your words

cannot substitute gauze

or dollar-store band-aids

so don’t waste your breath

telling me it’s all going toward something

 

I don’t know everything

but I know a few things

and I know better than that

About the author:
 
William Bonfiglio is a PhD candidate studying creative writing at the University of New Brunswick – Fredericton. His poetry has been awarded a Pearl Hogrefe Grant in Creative Writing Recognition Award, the Julia Fonville Smithson Memorial Prize, and has appeared in Sugar House Review, American Journal of Poetry, and elsewhere.
 
Art: Lights by Elissa Shumaker
 
In the artist's words:
 
Elissa Shumaker is a writer and artist who's traveled abroad and likes to reflect the city in her pieces.