Ana Maria Guay
Prayer for Apostasy
You come back to me like a liturgy,
a kyrie eleison crawling
up the throat of my memory.
Lord have mercy. Christ have mercy.
Some things get their mouths
in your flesh and don't let go,
arrowheads of the terrible mysteries.
I haven't thought about God in a long time
but a month ago your I love you
hammered my ribcage into a cathedral arch.
Now I pray for the art of unbuilding.
Kyrie eleison. Teach me how to stop
carrying words like they're holy.
Bio
Born in Asunción, Paraguay but raised in Brooklyn, NY, Ana Maria Guay is currently a third-year undergraduate at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; she is studying for a B.A. in Classical Languages and Literatures with a focus in Ancient Greek. Her creative translation from Homer's Iliad appears online in Canon Translation Review.