Fallen and Still Falling

  His piety, his oath scrunched up in the bedsheets, flowing floor-bound. The young, pale flower exquisite on the mattress... a temptation worth the eternal trident, spear. The burn that will not stop. Fire that binds with the soul, ejecting solar flare shrieks. White substance - in hell you glow like a star. 

  The fog on the windowpane shields him from the remainder of creation. He is alone in the room with the slumbering angel that shattered his covenant. Still, he feels only tenderness towards her. Bundles her in the white sheets, shielding her from the icey jaws of the winter chill. Outside the howling winds explore the empty city, briefly animating the debris of human life. Sheets of newspaper rise as doves, swimming into a Heaven now forbidden to him. 

  The chain and cross dangling from his neck, they feel possessed by an ancient weight, the pull of sin. Gravity, the Earth calling him to the Godless tomb of darkness, terrors trapped within the realm of tectonic beasts, sightlessly, soundlessly creeping underneath his feet. Their thoughts a knowing laughter. A pledge to meet.

--

  He is gone before she awakes. Restless, tortured and anxious, he roams the streets, vulnerable. Flesh the fabrication... in sin, all human flesh is translucent. We can watch it in one another, see the mechanisms whirl the hands on the clock face. The ticking propelling us into reconciliation. An acute awareness, if we're honest, that the seconds that seem to sever us from what we are, have been, will be. Illusory. Everything is here and everything is now. 

Reviews

[softlyfall]

I assume that a young woman seduced a priest?
Or at any rate, for whatever reason, a man who has taken a vow of celibacy.
Now, this may sound...well, hear me out- a woman cannot rape a priest and has no magical abilities to seduce. If his covenant was shattered, don't blame her. Every thing we do, every thing we FEEL...is a choice that we make and we must take responsibility.
However, that being said, this is extremely well written. I cannot even relate as I have no attachment to such unforgiving dogma, but I have read many books, including 5 versions of the Old Testament. But your descriptions and the emotional power of your writing are so excellent
Did you know that the ancient Romans penalized people for celibacy (unless they were vestal virgins)?

[C Peril]

Hi Softly,

Thank you so much for taking the time to read my work. Massively appreciate you reading the review as well! I hope I can return the favour shortly.

I wanted to make this expressly clear - perhaps I should have left a little disclaimer in the description preceding the piece - but the narration is supposed to be a musing emanating from the mind of the priest himself. You're hearing his thoughts about the situation, though it's not written in the first person. So it's questionable logic stemming from the mind of someone having a trauma of faith.

Just to stress, I'm not advocating for any view of female sexuality as being this mystical thing that somehow negates male agency and choice. :)

I didn't know that fact about ancient Rome actually. Are you quite well versed in classical history more generally?

Best,

C.

[C Peril]

* writing the review