Poem II: The Plumb Line

Cherry

By bhi

Mon, 28 Sep 2026
  • 130 reads
 

Poem II: · the one who wields it, the victim, and God

Three perspectives on the meaning of annihilation: the one who wields the power, the one who is subject to it, and the eye of God, dropped through the middle like a plumb line.

I · the hand

III · the eye

 II · the dust
Now I am become Death,

I

 see the light? crawl towards it.
the destroyer of worlds. I borrowed a god's mouth.

hung

 i crawled. the light was the burning.
The strong do what they can.

my

 and the weak suffer what they must.
I can. I sign at nine. By noon a city

bow

 bows. a boy, a melted chunk of flesh, begs for water.
ob / liter / ate: to strike out the letter.

in

 aleph alif alpha. the school had just reached b.
I make a desert and I call it peace.

the

 destroyed in whole or in part. the lawyers argue part.
I say the one word with no survivors: all.

cloud.

 is there anyone Zaghawa among you? after, there wasn't.
History will call me necessary.

Who

 no one will call me. no one is left who knew the name.
I only signed. The pilot only flew. The sky only fell.

strung

 my mother's beads, unstrung, in the rubble.
I sleep. I sleep well.

it

 i do not sleep. someone must keep count.
And if it must be done again - 

again?

 never, they swore. again. again. again.

I asked for one annihilation only: of the self. Never of the other. The rest is ash.

Certificate 15
Poem
On the theme of Annihilation
Other Fiction