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issue two / celestial

Another Sunday Sermon
​in Hendricks County

Tara Ventura
Nathan baptizes me
in the backyard

and I am born again,
unsure if I ever really went under in an above ground pool,

but he says it counts just as much so
I light a cigarette to balance my new body back out and pass it.

I drink from the bottle,
flap my soggy wings and squirm.

The butt comes back to me
a jewel beetle,

belly-up and drowning
from the party’s open-mouthed kiss.

Her limbs rattle:
we are not supposed to be here, but

this is where I’ve always been
so I pull her from blueblack anathema

and say,
“maybe Nathan will baptize you, too.”

Or maybe
the beetle’s a ritual atheist

and I’m just another starving philanthropist
knocking on her door.

Overindulged,
entertain this:

what I take as evidence of cryptids
is only a beetle in the backyard,

rolled over with
bent wings,
​
still glistening, and
a testament.

Cursing herself for
having been born so small.

Tara Ventura is a teacher, poet, and graduate student from Indianapolis, Indiana. Her work has been featured in Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis’s literary magazine, genesis. When she isn’t in the classroom, she usually can be found petting her dog.

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  • home
  • about
    • about the journal
    • read >
      • issue 1 / serendipity
      • issue 2 / celestial
      • issue 3 / reverie
      • issue 4 / panacea
      • issue 5 / mosaic
    • masthead
    • inspiration
    • nominations
  • submit
    • submission guidelines
  • features
    • National Youth Day Open Mic