Holy of Holies

After the final ascent,
Enoch’s eyes open
on the womb of Solomon’s temple—
a cube of fire, an aperture into the throngs—
all those dancing figures.
 
Did you think the godly mysteries
would be bodies thrumming to the chords
of creation? I want to know
 
what it means to pull light from dark,
how we were woven before
sun and moon bore sway over tides
and land—
 
what is scribed on the fleshy walls
of my womb. Show me in what
perfect script atoms say yes
and atoms say no to formulas unseen
yet recited over and over until
the universe is one swelling requiem.

Kathryn Knight Sonntag is the Wayfare Poetry Editor and the author of The Mother Tree: Discovering the Love and Wisdom of Our Divine Mother (Faith Matters Publishing, 2022) and The Tree at the Center (BCC Press, 2019).