“I Saw My Body Dreaming” Gather, enshrouding dark to my supper. This is my body. This is my shame— My body! The last great deception. You see me caged in what I have loved— The final reflection. For so long, it was safe here— But it’s not helping anymore. I wakened in the night, Without disturbing my slumber. I saw my body dreaming— Somehow, I had left it behind, I saw the skin become stone— So much more than I had hoped for… The wars had been laid aside— What cares bedewed the sleeper’s brow Lay buried in the vestiges of blood, For long had the stone been bleeding, To bleed no more its own ruin. A sigh escaped the surrounding night. Stalking from these mortal relics. I placed my hand upon the sleeper, And found only grains of sand, Where once flesh was made stone. And amid the ruins of what had been Man Lay, end-to-end, the bones of his deities, Self-slain in offering to Their own shrines. What words did they speak, Beyond a fading cry of, “Who now shall say 'Amen'?” © 2023

He cried at their wedding. He's the type of man who feels like men need to be strong all the time, but he cried at their wedding. He'd been through terrible things in his life. His brother died when he was young, after spending a long time in a coma. His mother died after that, when he was a teenager. His father had never really been in the picture... so his aunt took him in. His aunt's husband mistreated him and greedily tried to take his mother and brother's insurance money for himself. He liked my mom and dad, who were like a second aunt and uncle to him, because they didn't try to take his money. He stayed with us for a while. I was young enough not to truly realize what he was going through. I just thought it was awesome that he got to stay with us. After all that hardship, he found the woman that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. He was so happy and grateful that he cried at his wedding. He asked me to be one of his maids of honor. I saw his tears