Sasha Carney
Exoneration, Post-Exams
the lighting through the staircase emulates
an exposed spine, filtered, microcosm,
a doll’s house with the skin stripped back
irish literature, english class:
the unique catholicism of self-immolation
or something like that
[fact: my taxi driver was adopted twice]
at the wedding, we paid penance as admission
as though to smoke out the sins we’d smuggled in
under our tongues / her tongue
has slipped under mine one too many times
for forgive me father to be swallowed whole
[fact: purgatory was abolished in 1532]
humility is muscle memory, sign of the cross
proclaiming its absence, penance as performance art
hail mary a thin film on my soft palate,
comfort in familiar unease
[fact: limoncello tastes sweet as pond scum]
there’s a mania to picking up a pen again
to pick yourself apart. as i scratch
my way past certainties,
the parking lot lampposts
look like ghosts on holiday –
no, spirits double-dipped in sunlight –
no, casper with a tan
[fact: I have all too much and all too little time]
an exposed spine, filtered, microcosm,
a doll’s house with the skin stripped back
irish literature, english class:
the unique catholicism of self-immolation
or something like that
[fact: my taxi driver was adopted twice]
at the wedding, we paid penance as admission
as though to smoke out the sins we’d smuggled in
under our tongues / her tongue
has slipped under mine one too many times
for forgive me father to be swallowed whole
[fact: purgatory was abolished in 1532]
humility is muscle memory, sign of the cross
proclaiming its absence, penance as performance art
hail mary a thin film on my soft palate,
comfort in familiar unease
[fact: limoncello tastes sweet as pond scum]
there’s a mania to picking up a pen again
to pick yourself apart. as i scratch
my way past certainties,
the parking lot lampposts
look like ghosts on holiday –
no, spirits double-dipped in sunlight –
no, casper with a tan
[fact: I have all too much and all too little time]
Biography
Sasha Carney (they/them) is a poet and student from Ottawa studying English and Women's, Gender, & Sexuality Studies at Yale University. They are a former recipient of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year award in 2015 and 2016, and have had their work published by The Poetry Society and The Yale Herald, with upcoming work in Nightingale & Sparrow. You can follow them on Twitter @sashcarney.
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