2023 Arthur W. Hinners & Louise Hinners Sipfle Prize

Crystallized Repentance

by Ninetta DeBoni

$Campus Counselor smiles. “Do you consider yourself spiritual?”  I dunno. Is my anxious, full pants-pocket maraca of Tiger’s Eye stone spiritual?   Haliegh is careful with the tweezers when it comes to my sister heart and  wild brows– Christina says Family Time can be healing and Sleepovers spiritual.   Heard that Selenite is cleansing, like a last minute trip out West where angels  haunt the Jungle Cruise in Anaheim and turn Disney Magic junkies spiritual.   Roving wheels on country roads scatter Pea Gravel seeds sideways,  planting hedge apple and key lime for Grandma’s bare orchard-spiritual.   An Ex-Catholic’s comedy set makes my twice-baptized body wince, triggers it into a Stigmata, begriming the flesh for the sake of staying pseudo-spiritual.  September Sapphire gaze refracts the gold Diwali lights, sparks the empty heart into a full bottle rocket’s rapid climb; ascension in a love made spiritual.  Drunken-tripping crash down on Concrete connects porch lips to mine, fills my bloody nose with Diane’s basil thyme for a cheap aroma-therapy spiritual.  Tattooed Lady takes the taper tool to open the ear to a closed childhood wound and talks of true crime– says piercing is Acupuncture, a stabbing turned spiritual.  Saint Sebastian is painted in a pin-up pose, a martyr’s prayer held in place with arrows; a chiaroscuro, Christian paradigm. In the contrasted light, I saw my shadow playing spiritual.  Online, a neo-pagan blames my Aries Moon, votes for a Carnelian cure. Dad looks me in the eye, says, “Little Girl, I wish I gave you something to believe in.”$

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2023 Arthur W. Hinners & Louise Hinners Sipfle Prize

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Crystallized Repentance

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