Fragment 52: I do not expect to touch the sky
“Marble statuette of Aphrodite Anadyomene (rising) type” (late 2nd century BCE). Gift of John W. Cross, 1950. Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
i do not expect to touch the sky
—Sappho
I
Aphrodite,
my once-was friend.
your gift seems no blessing.
you pull bodies together
unmindful of the price
to be paid.
you showed me a world called We:
a universe made just for two. and
trusting, i jumped in completely.
only to discover, We
was a facade built of eggshells,
easily shattered.
i do not expect to touch the sky.
for me, flying’s dream has ended.
once there was a sun, and now,
only darkness.
II
in Hades, i find no succor.
i haunt this twilight land. hands
combing the frozen morass
uncover only the past.
Sister Styx. how cruel. you took my tears
but left my memories.
i remember
his eyes following me
like the sun follows the dawn.
his gaze hot as lion’s breath, flutter of
butterfly eyelashes on my cheek,
and tickling some other places.
i remember
lips: lamb’s ear soft, sweet as a peach
pressing against my mouth, and
when lips met hips,
with a hiss, my life passed.
i remember
skin like molten granite.
igneous. my fingers burned
for more. together, we burned
nova bright; even golden Apollo
cast a shadow, his fire a pale cousin to our fusion.
in the land of shades
i searched, i thought, for Love
but Love cannot be found by the dead heart.
instead, among the detritus, I remembered
myself.
III
Aphrodite,
your gift can be severe.
It is not for the timid heart,
and, proven in darkness,
my heart is not timid.
I remember Love.
I remember Ecstasy.
Yet. I barely remember him.
I am ready to
touch the sky
again.
Jonahs Kneitly
Publab Fellow 2024
Jonahs Kneitly is a PhD student in the English department at Texas A&M University. He examines EcoGothic literature across the 20th century to explore the ways we imagine and portray nature. He is especially interested in literary environments that go beyond empirical nature to become indicative of cultural, political, and economic power. In his free time, he writes poetry and short prose and plays with his tabby, Mister E.