creation story

Ariana Thornton, United States

I.

in the beginning,

she was made blind to the heavens and the earth.

II.

like mountains, the scars of her neglect seem to grow with age,

her sunspots strewn like paper flakes, remnants of

her frenchman’s letters lost to naïveté,

still imprinted by his lips when he whispered,

reste avec moi

and kissed her sadly,

her cellulite, her facial folds,

ancient canyons formed from

the places his fingertips grazed her skin.

III.

her grandmother left when she was born a female.

her mother’s hand became a comet, colors reacting

red white and blue

landing star-spangled blows

like her future american husbands

bruises the only love she thought she knew,

as part of her then as her myopia,

her 飞机场,

mao’s little red book in her palm.

IV.

the woman wanders on a silver river,

believing that a Son exists.

she searches for meaning, a chemical bond, misses

her bleeding, her fluency in french, longs

for her late mother’s atomic love.

when the angels of God rest atop the empty tomb,

there is only the woman traveler that calls,

oh, Pierre!—

are you among the living or the dead?

V.

a voice commands, let there be light, and it is so:

an explosive rupture that bakes her tongue

quarks that, after billions of years, become blood.

Evangelina Ariana Thornton is a rising high school junior attending Phillips Exeter Academy. She is an avid reader of poetry and historical fiction, has twelve years of experience in the fine arts, and is passionate about environmental activism. Her writings have been nationally recognized by the Scholastic Awards and published in school chapbooks and youth literary magazines. Outside of class, she co-founded and leads her school's Ocean Awareness and Action Club, and finds inspiration in fruits and nature. Find her on Instagram @ar.i.tistic.