they didn’t warn you I
open my eyes during
prayer. Pastor Lovely’s
pine pews are
cousins, sisters,
friends of this
would-
could-
won’t-
be mottled floret.
dear Lord, he
prays, thank you
for the skin broken
on pa rt ic ul ate teeth, and
dear Lord, bless
the battered whose scales
peel back to reveal
beatific visions, seeds
cramped in spine.
dear Lord, he
trembles, and I watch
as his sleeves pour
pinecones, inundating
the half empty
pews with more
like me.
 
Darian Kuxhouse is a senior Creative Writing major at Berry College. She has been the Opinions Editor at Berry’s student newspaper, Campus Carrier, and is the Editor-in-Chief at Berry’s literary and arts magazine, Ramifications. She has had her work published in Ramifications for the past three years and has received the Hammond Poetry Award twice during her time at Berry College. She plans on attending graduate school in the fall and hopes to continue working with literary magazines in the future.