By Marie-Elena LeBlanc Bellissimo
Edited by Alloe Mak

I don’t believe in God anymore.

but if you died before I got the chance to

I would fall to my knees and beg to the sky— 

arms outstretched—

to bend the very fabric of space and time

so that we could meet again.

maybe in a different world,

in different bodies.

but I would know you in any universe

I would know the galaxies of your eyes even if I were blind

the shape of your smile in the dark

the song of your voice when you are silent 

the softness of your touch when you are far away.

I know your hands 

when they tenderly reach beneath the blanket of my skin

and braid the fibers of my torn muscles back together 

you are healing me

you are healing me.

I don’t believe in God anymore.

but when it’s time 

—because it happens to us all—

I pray I die first

I couldn’t stand to live a moment without you.