and god saw everything he made, and behold, it was very good (genesis 2:31)

by stephanie holden

you are your own god re

born under a new name

on the sixth day you took

a rib from your skeleton

built a man of your own

creation; molded him in

the likeness of someone

you have yet to meet. a

life is a laborious thing

to create, and scars will

come and then will fade

but tomorrow is the

seventh day on the

seventh day you will

finally

rest

---

Stephanie Holden (she/they) is a Halloween-loving queer living in New Orleans, Louisiana. She writes about love, trauma, gore, and the self. Her interests are fantasy books, body modification, and the South. Find her work at or forthcoming in Cloves, Voidspace, The B’K, Bullshit Lit, Soft Star Magazine, Martello Journal, Karma Comes Before, Poetry as Promised, Diet Water, Cutbow Quarterly, Hearth & Coffin, Colossus, and BEST SERVED COLD, or her narcissistic tweets at @smhxlden