you are formless
a bear’s paw four times the size of a man’s hand
she says and when we think of you again
we refuse to see fate as anything
but a convention constructed by privilege disabused of power
 
so open outward she says do not foreclose on doubt or reify faith
 
our calcified theological atheist minds are less beautiful
than our modest ones the perforating bullet passes through and is 
less damaging than a wounding object lodged inside us
e.g. an exploding bullet with she and i like gravity
through which worlds pass a brood of common copper 
butterflies among bunch grass and blue willow
and you like water
shimmering 

                                                                 ii.6 
                                                                 —for Leslie Marmon Silko 

Shann Ray | Atomic Theory 432, ii.7
Contents | Mudlark No. 64 (2018)