by Amanda Earl
I seek answers in myth: Orpheus,
Persephone, those who’ve been
to the Underworld and back
in art: the bleached white bones
of ram’s head with horns
like wings in a blood red
sky, hills depicted as bodies
breathing and folded in sleep
I have become a pantheist
I worship trees, can’t bear
to be indoors, need breeze
and rain on face to know
I am alive otherwise
all of this is just another
delusion maybe
I didn’t wake up am still
lying on my
ICU bed doomed
to repeat my nightmares
I find solace in empty
churches, the smell
of polished wood
and incense, candle wax
the colour of the light
from stained glass
stillness is a hymn
of gratitude I sing
to myself every day
and I find that stillness
everywhere
— from Juniper Volume 4, Issue 1