Content Warning: implied sexual violence
Tahlia McKinnon - only he can heal me
I hold myself, steady
ready to receive the bread
that breaks like tiny bones between my baby teeth.
body, made of paper
burn to read, but see
you fill every page, anyway.
mouth of clay,
mould me to the heat
of you. no stranger desire
have I, than to be
reshaped by you remade in your honour –
called by your name.
eyes of brimstone,
but it is your lips that give me life.
but it is your hand that yields my pain.
and to think,
that I thanked God for you,
when you were the strange in me
that I’d feared, all along.
oh, but only he can heal me
press his mouth against my chest
and breathe hope and unrest
into my blood, into my bones.
what a dangerous gift
it is, to have – the power to lay someone to rest.
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Tahlia McKinnon is the Founding Editor-In-Chief of Hecate Magazine. Tahlia's writing often centres on haunted love, exultant spirituality and her experiences as a trauma survivor. Her creative work has been placed in The Daily Drunk Mag, Wrongdoing Magazine, Anti-Heroin Chic, Radical Arts Review and others. You can find her online @tahliamckinnon or via tahliamariamckinnon.co.uk
Photograph: Passion by Arun Kapur
Enigmatic. Charismatic. Passionate. Lover of life and all truth that binds us together. Arun Kapur is a mental health advocate that uses the medium of the arts to raise awareness of stigmas and well-being. Through poetry and film, he aims to amplify untold stories of unheard voices.