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Illuminating poetry since 1959

Posted on | Poetry

Into the tomb which houses my body which houses my life

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"While I was in the tomb of my body God took away Frank Sinatra so they can have whiskey at the bar at three in the morning & what God took I can’t take to my tomb & what is buried within my body I can’t take to God & back in my body which has been a burial of what aches God took away Carl Sagan so they can further explore the limits of deep space & deep in my body where there is space for God there is a tomb which houses my life & what is a tomb for God if not my heart & when God took & took & took my heart became a calcified chapel made of crumbly prayers & oh God whenever I have nothing how I hope for the crumbly coupons to be accepted in lieu of coins & in lieu of my God I give you my life that has crumbled & my life which houses my body houses prayers that have calcified & back to the long burial that is my life God took away the drunk who pisses himself empty every morning & said every time he forgets how to be a person he calls to God & so he was found with an empty fist and a tomb for a mouth & if God had a mouth would he have emptied it & if God was a fist would he have calcified & how empty is a body that is uncertain about God & for certain God took away my grandfather as the nurse cracked his ribs open & please God I whispered after I fell to my knees & please body where is the tomb where I can fall in & how many more tombs & how many more bodies & how many more God before I ask you to take this body where I have buried my howls & what could my body take to be buried with my God & my God what would it take"

T. De Los Reyes is a Filipino poet and author of And Yet Held (Bull City Press). She is the founder of Read A Little Poetry. Read more at tdelosreyes.com.

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