Salvation by Lydia Bae (Washington)

Soil,
Earth-rich, swallows heartily 
Of obsidian blood dribbling
From clasped hands that pound 
Against walls
Of spiked, slivered 
Shale.

---

Light
In quick-silver flashes, scorches 
The air, rams with ruthless efficiency
Into crevices that trap molten flesh
And beating heart
Alike.

Prayers, 
Half-aborted before birth, 
Suffocate in graves,
Walls of salted dust
Behind my pressed
Lips.

I
Beg for midnight
For full moons that flicker
Within my corneas, engrave 
The soft flesh
Of my forearms
With fire to mark the passing
Time.

Visions
Flicker, a hammer
Gravity-pulled,
Cleaves a web,
Of fractures in skull,
Each widening reveal
Scraps for the famine
Within. ​