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Collision. Uneven floors.
Broken glass & dizziness.
Wasteland. Life grows
out of the cracks
Of the concrete outside.
Wind whips through dyed
Hair & the fabric of skirts.
Black buckles adorn my boots.
Bruises trace the edges
Of skin that was once soft.
It is a self-induced madness.
Who could find their God
In the strangling, the cry for
Help, finally answered?
It is movement untamed.
There is something here
I have yet to name, &
In the chaos of my body
Meeting body meeting
body of stranger,
I am suspended in time
& sound & present in all things,
& when the one above
Calls my name, I answer.
Ariana Alvarado
Ariana Alvarado is an undergraduate student at Bellarmine University in Louisville, Kentucky studying English, Creative Writing, and Theology. At Bellarmine, she has served as founder and President of Pen and Sword Open Mic Club. She has also served as an editorial board member, Vice President, and President of the Ariel Literary Society Her work has been published in The White Squirrel Magazine, Preposition: The Undercurrent Anthology, Sanctuary Magazine, and two editions of the Ariel Magazine. Her poem “I ask my father why he believes.” won the Flo Gault Student Poetry Prize in 2022 from Sarabande Books.