There But for the Grace of God Go I

—Machine, 1979

—Last of all, as to one born abnormally, he appeared to me…but by the grace of God I am what I am…” — Corinthians 15:8—10

a piece of coral i look and fold outside me into air. like how a piece of paper curls out from itself in flame. into air. the ash follows the coral where it wriggles. like it isn’t made of stone. like i didn’t make it. i’m lying on the ground. the ground a part of me. i can point at it and say that. is mine. is me. is that really. the coral that turns into itself. its approaching. the tip of the coral is opening its pore. its largest pore is becoming a mouth. everything in the seizure is becoming. it wants to be a box-mouthed lamb of fingernails. you are a fingernail in the box of my loving. the lamb wants to say. was there a choice against the ground. the fingernails are my fingernails. the lamb is pink. the coral wasn’t pink. it contains its burning. it won’t leave —

— leaves contain its burning. won’t it pink coral. pink lamb. the is wasn’t it my fingernails. the fingernails are choice. the the ground against there a loving lamb was wants to say. the box of my fingernail in the you are a fingernails-box mouthed of lamb seizure wants. it is becoming to be a becoming a everything. in the mouth pore opening its largest pore its is approaching coral tip of the. the is itself coral. that turns its into really. mine is me. that is that. is the part of me i can point at and say it. the ground on the lying i’m a ground. didn’t it make like stone. of i made coral wriggles. isn’t it like where it follows into flame. the ash the air. itself paper out in from curls of outside. into air how like me a piece a piece of coral i fold and look

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Benjamin Bartu is a poet & writer. He is the winner of the Blood Orange Review’s inaugural poetry contest, and a Fishtrap Fellowship finalist. His writing has appeared or is forthcoming in The Adroit Journal, The Tahoma Literary Review, Witness Magazine, GASHER, The Hunger, & elsewhere. An Associate Editor at Palette Poetry & Editor at Literistic, he can be found on twitter @alampnamedben.