These two poems by Laura Andrea explore a latent and lapsed catholic guilt by reimagining faith as mythos both modern and ancient…
by Laura Andrea
[in Super Smash Bros. Melee voice] CHOOSE YOUR SAINT weaponize the saints haunting the armory stitched inside my living room couch. nothing is more catholic than a sword-gun-fist fight in the sky. verify that your saint exists: halt all movement & spit altar accouterments. do they beat(ify) you with a righteous physicality? cross-reference your wounds with the patronage list you've birthed bruisemancy. controllers are an old testament beating your brow with myth.
bedtime prayer your name a sigh and a delusion about our sex being narratively compliant. there is a dragon underneath the pews converted into living room furniture. we bought the church for cheap threw up dry- wall down the aisle. everyone kinda wants save the world but I’ll settle for this building: the damsel guarded by the beast saved by a damsel and her beast. the charred scripture salvaged made for mosaic prophecies. you will find sanctuary in the most beautiful woman after 70 weeks of pulling apart her temple. the wood is half-blessed and fully imbued with aches for different aches that smother under your paws. the bed frame comes out jagged but sturdy night comes as fast as dawn as fast as scales also jagged but sturdy through me.
Laura Andrea is a writer from Carolina, Puerto Rico. They hold an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Texas at El Paso and is a 2023 Periplus Fellow. Her work can be found in Luna Luna Magazine, Acentos Review, and Rio Grande Review, among others. They’re the author of genderbi (Ghost City Press, 2022) a poetry microchap, and writes the column Monsterfucker for Final Girl Bulletin Board. You can follow her day to day @lauranlora.
