image by Jeremy Nathan Marks
Relation to 0 — Jeremy Marks
I cannot bear to be 1 unless I feel its reflection.
A scorpion loses a limb before maturing and
as the limb regrows it knows only that limb 2
is smaller than 1 not what -1 limb might have
become which is how in mourning you
indivisibility induces me to suffer.
The cup from which your drink has broken already
its water is in clouds that have rained and that rain
is lost in drought. Blue rivers beneath our skin bring
red blood and the shine of bone is as clean as scored
fossils. Shells from ocean creatures hover within stone
over a waste where scorpions dine on their siblings.
My relation to 0 is 1 plus or minus.
©2025 Jeremy Nathan Marks
[The Reply]
Meghann Riepenhoff; Ecotone 1419
Carbon Axiom —
Does zero’s fluctuating heart
Know the horseshoe’s blue blood of healing?
Cast in sands bound and burning
Your lostness meeting wrong tides
Crimson veins
Mirage of fading pain healing
Antediluvian
Shell shedding—clutching
Naked bodies moulting, sealing
Solaces to clot our pain
Sacred lore lessons weeping—tree
Nature’s course reveals where wisdom goes
Willow root submerging, dredging
—Carbon from our cores cleansing
Weilding torch
Soul shadowed in union learning
Indivisible
—Ataraxia
Limulidae proof, timeless truth
Opposing a spiral self-made cage
Understanding —cravings from dust
Where, when rebuilt, does trust's true haven lie?
©2025 SylviA 🌞 KalinA