A Fourth Figure in the Fire
poem by:
Rhys Lee
Written
on Mar 30, 2020
Wafting upon the wind came
a sparkling Atom, brighter
than gamma ray bursts in
the farthest abysses of space
where Leviathan churns up
the deep and spews fire upon
the Four Winds to consume me—
I, insignificant speck, upon
my knees crawl, sifting out
worms from sand passing
between my fingers like dreams
once held, futures of which
no longer become, calling forth
“Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachtani!â€â€”
beneath the waters choked and
wrung of meaning, ropes tied
around my neck and attached to
millstones of intelligent ancients,
calling out but only releasing oxygen,
lungs filling with bedlam that
requires function from a sparkling Atom—
I, insignificant speck, beseech
providence from the Greatest
Unknown, that my material would
at the hands of omnipotence be
unmade and released into the abysses
of the eternal cosmos to create
an amalgam of brightest
being which above the waters
walks, reaching forth hands of
healing and resurrection, something
I, insignificant speck, can only
wish would carry me further into
the mountain to become more
solid and eventually more real—