Molecular Codes

If a molecule of Caesar floats within me,
I mean a molecule of his breath when he cried out his last
at the betrayal, then there are also molecules 
of Sappho, who sang to give me breath, 

the blue sea hugging the rocks where she turned away
from the beloved one last time, 
walked down the stony path in her thin sandals, 
wincing, though she knew the world would remain 
insensible to her suffering,

which deepened her song,
made her breath hum with all the human,
& even though most of her songs
are only partly here now

fragmented into bone & wh
o e lin  is enou h to tak  u  ba k
to th  beg nni of  or ow, th firs bre

Lynne Knight | Fragment of Spine & Eye
Contents | Mudlark No. 62 (2017)