Was This the Only Way?

In nature, there is nothing contingent.

the ink of your traumas

bled into these sheets long ago

it cannot be erased

or rewritten

as I read those pages, I think

a monster wrote this story.

But it is absurd to affirm this of a Being absolutely infinite and supremely perfect.

this is how it was meant to be-

the only way it could be.

you, child-

do you sit up in the night and wonder

when the quill will descend next

or from which vein it will drink?

do you search yourself

looking for scars you don’t yet know,

asking

if the ink is dry,

why am I still bleeding?

when the stars fall from the skies

do you make a wish

or do you wander

lost between lines of dead starlight

hoping to follow them to a better world?

Immediately after the tribulation of those days,

the sun will be darkened

and the moon will not give its light,

and the stars will fall from the sky,

and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

Deepak Singh ’23