Telling Time

Maggie Traxler

Washing the mysterious face of the deep
in the purring shallows of the new water,
your God drew the world in seven days.
We have spent each new morning since
undoing it. We are a slow animal
obsessed with our own speed.

I want to walk through the world as it was made,
through fields of patience which tickle my ankles,
touch me carefully, and with kindness.
Through the languid rivers whose only agenda
is to serve the fish and the frog,
and remind me to go slowly.

The grove of humanity is unguarded,
you do not need to know any
specific prayers to rest on its
forgiving grass. You may lay
naked here, free of the heavy
garments of time.

But when I wake, I find I cannot
absolve myself of history,
cannot look away as its body
is being kneaded, roughened,
spoiled, torn.

The first clock was the sun.
It will be
the last one, too.

Maggie Traxler is a writer living in Chicago. She studied Film and Digital Media at Fordham University in New York and her work has previously been published in Litbreak Magazine and Polyester Zine.

Art: Yongxi (Vivian) Lin is an illustrator and printmaker based in New York. She completed her undergraduate studies in Illustration at the School of Visual Arts and is currently pursuing Printmaking at Pratt Institute. Her work often blends illustration and printmaking, exploring themes of personal narrative, emotional storytelling, and cultural hybridity. Through her art, she reflects both visible joys and hidden struggles, creating imagery that is playful yet thoughtful.