{"id":5372,"date":"2024-03-07T01:57:24","date_gmt":"2024-03-07T01:57:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jugular.org.au\/?p=5372"},"modified":"2024-03-12T15:38:51","modified_gmt":"2024-03-12T15:38:51","slug":"stone-heart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jugular.org.au\/index.php\/2024\/03\/07\/stone-heart\/","title":{"rendered":"Stone Heart"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>2 Minute, 18 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n

Written by Anna Chua & Edited by Monika M<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

thirty summers gone and a minute past and<\/p>\n\n\n\n

here I am still, my hands clasped that shake the cloister and<\/p>\n\n\n\n

in the whisper, unchanged. This is no Elysium. It is gone and I am here,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

bowed before this dis-torted visage of man, beneath<\/p>\n\n\n\n

nothing that is the sky, and in nothing<\/p>\n\n\n\n

light through the window that pours past wooden floorboards and flows over walls and stain-glass, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

spilling away<\/p>\n\n\n\n

nothing that remains of you and I. yet untouched, and perching<\/p>\n\n\n\n

upon ruined foundations,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

do not begrudge me your ugliness, says the stone,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I see it in your eyes, hollowed-moons, and in<\/p>\n\n\n\n

a thousand nameless faces,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the shepherd gone and sheep starved,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

that which I know not and cannot say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

who shall speak for us now? I only have this body, (a body),<\/p>\n\n\n\n

useless body,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

some<\/p>\n\n\n\n

body are you listening? Watch closely. Witness the horrors,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

submit yourself. Time that moves the minute, too quickly, and in the turning of an hour,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

history unmaking itself, grinding gears<\/p>\n\n\n\n

systems upon systems,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

fractal snowflakes, insignificance<\/p>\n\n\n\n

consuming itself, suspended in equipoise the weight of the earth flung<\/p>\n\n\n\n

into my impotent hands, the way syllables<\/p>\n\n\n\n

dribble and<\/p>\n\n\n\n

plop<\/p>\n\n\n\n

past the chitinous shell I have built around<\/p>\n\n\n\n

this beating tumour. Yet, growing still, uncontained. Watch <\/p>\n\n\n\n

fallen monarch, insides calcifying<\/p>\n\n\n\n

insides \u2013 twisting and crawling <\/strong>in darkness \u2013 the soup of me that oozes and<\/p>\n\n\n\n

congeals, scraping along halls and bowels, ossifying <\/p>\n\n\n\n

cartilage, encasing bone and slow-creeps<\/p>\n\n\n\n

patchwork skin such that in the cocooning and reforming,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

an imperfect copy affixes the copy and I,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

wingless seraph, failed transcription <\/strong>of man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

here is the rock and no water. It is gone and we are bleached bones on the shore,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

cords that vibrate and make no sound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

pity the recapitulation, butterfly dreamer,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

we are bracing for the end after the end, the end to end all ends<\/p>\n\n\n\n

or else endless continuity, and the <\/p>\n\n\n\n

steady march <\/p>\n\n\n\n

that <\/p>\n\n\n\n

fells buildings, rubbles <\/p>\n\n\n\n

streets, dynasties that tumble and<\/p>\n\n\n\n

disintegrate \u2013 fragmentation in a new theme \u2013 blurring <\/p>\n\n\n\n

divisions and ways of being and rituals spun from air, compresses<\/p>\n\n\n\n

lives, erodes unbelief, covering bodies with ash, unyielding <\/p>\n\n\n\n

chrysalis \u2013 only decay within \u2013 and too fast the past fades, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

heavens unshifting under hollow pillars,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and so stumbles <\/strong>soul-wearied pilgrim, lone and <\/p>\n\n\n\n

levelled upon the wreck and the barren sands<\/p>\n\n\n\n

that cascade over existence inchoate and<\/p>\n\n\n\n

promises unbegun and<\/p>\n\n\n\n

over dry plains that<\/p>\n\n\n\n

crumble. Rooted upon this cactus land, I stand here now and forever-more<\/p>\n\n\n\n

bereft as you, church without a steeple,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

open-mouthed<\/p>\n\n\n\n

grotesque and cast my throne upon<\/p>\n\n\n\n

a sea of glass, new dawning star and the dust you brush from the window-sill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n

\n
\n \n
\n \n \"Happy\"\n <\/a>\n
\n Happy <\/div>\n
\n 0<\/span>\n \n 0<\/span> %<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n
\n \n \"Sad\"\n <\/a>\n
\n Sad <\/div>\n
\n 0<\/span>\n 0<\/span> %<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n
\n \n \"Excited\"\n <\/a>\n
\n Excited <\/div>\n
\n 0<\/span>\n 0<\/span> %<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n
\n \n \"Sleepy\"\n <\/a>\n
\n Sleepy <\/div>\n
\n 0<\/span>\n \n 0<\/span> %<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n
\n \n \"Angry\"\n <\/a>\n
Angry<\/div>\n
\n 0<\/span>\n 0<\/span> %<\/span>\n \n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n
\n \n \"Surprise\"\n <\/a>\n
Surprise<\/div>\n
\n 0<\/span>\n 0<\/span> %<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Written by Anna Chua & Edited by Monika M thirty summers gone and a minute past and here I am still, my hands clasped that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5399,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[58,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t