two rituals to reinvent yourself

1.

discover yourself in heavy mist.¹ traipse like a midnight sinner to the center of a fallow field and sit yourself down. sway to the cries of the storm brewing to the southwest. when civil twilight draws nearer, enjoy your last moments of new moon’s shroud over your most derelict desires. in the daylight, all there will be to want is yourself back. embrace the numbness. sit with it.

2.

find yourself in glitter dust. screech upward at nothing in particular, at the peak of the vaulted ceiling that is the night splayed before you. paint yourself violet into the cosmos with a fan brush. in the morning’s goldenrod glory, beg the sky for another three hours of darkness. as the water mill of days and memories turns, take note of the past, and take care not to repeat it.

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^[1] “in heavy mist, in glitter dust” is a lyric from the 2014 Glass Animals song “Pools.”

nat raum (b. 1996) is a disabled artist, writer, and genderless disaster from Baltimore, MD. They’re the editor-in-chief of fifth wheel press, as well as the author of you stupid slut, the abyss is staring back, random access memory, and several chapbooks.