Audio: Read by the author.
For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor
angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor
height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate
us from the love of God…
—Romans 8:38–39
neither death nor life, nor angels with or without needling
pins, nor the devils we fear, nor the evils we do, nor rulers
in office or refusing office. Not things bursting on us
or the terrors that come, elections, disasters natural
or unnatural, powers wielded and weening, keening envy
and fearful cringe; nor headline high, the cudgel of celebrity,
a coven of clicks, nor low as a back-alley fix, small claims, sex
worked over, beaten of its wild gratitude. Not the cage within
or the cages without, nor the law that makes it so. No thing made
or unmade, or born or yet to be, can separate us from the Love
that drew us forth from weave to know the weave and return to it.
Kim Garcia is the author of Drone (Backwaters), Tales of the Sisters (Sow’s Ear), Madonna Magdalene (Turning Point), and The Brighter House (White Pine). She teaches creative writing at Boston College.