In Communion with Calliope #7: In Memoriam of Omayra Sánchez

In Communion with Calliope is a fortnightly column by Ivana Marija Devčić.

I feel the weight of the world

as though it were a house upon me.

I am not Atlas, 

I cannot bear this mantle 

stooped and bravely bowing.

Instead, I sense the atrophy

biting through my muscles.

My heart shatters within;

that fragile thing,

made of nought but

words and stuck paper.

But still, I stand –

Even if it is I who must become 

the cement lion that prowls the fence;

the angel buttress above the door. 

My eyes are black now,

filled with the yearning, 

endless sorrow of the night,

as it bids the world farewell

before the rising dawn. 

Watch as my knees quiver

without my knowing

for they are air beneath me,

transforming into wings.

Seize the last sight of me,

before I sink into the ground

and form the axis of the universe.

Life at the price of a child,

willingly given.

Will you walk away? 

Or will you turn backward?