Just because something was once sacred
doesn’t mean it deserves to live forever.
Think scripture or traditions cast in stone.
All bricks can be ruptured. Even a pebble
furiously rubbing against another gives way
to splinters. This is to say fire can come
from anywhere, embers can rise from
the most unexpected places to burn
everything down. This is scary, yes,
but also incredibly calming. Think again
of tradition cast in stone. Can be burned down.
Think of practice and family. Can be
combusted into vapour. Scrolls of stories?
Can be incinerated into powder.
Cheap rumours? Can be lost
in the density of flames. There is power
in knowing that everything can be destroyed.
Because nothing is forever, preservation
is a selective blessing. I want you to remember
this as you’re told to live a life
in repetition. A church built from brick
and mortar cannot be brought down
with only a wrecking ball. Sometimes it
takes an implosion, a fire from within
momentous enough to knock off the facade.
This is good advice. Only if you need it.
Contributor Notes
Meher Manda is a poet, short story writer, journalist, and educator originally from Mumbai, India, currently splitting time between New York City and Providence, RI. She earned her MFA in fiction from the College of New Rochelle where she was the founding editor-in-chief of The Canopy Review. She is the author of the chapbook Busted Models (No, Dear / Small Anchor, 2019), and her work has been published or is forthcoming in The Margins, Barren Magazine, Peach Mag, Catapult, Epiphany, Cosmonauts Avenue, and elsewhere. She was a fellow of the Rad(ical) Poetry Consortium at DreamYard and a Best New Poets and Best of the Net Anthology nominee
