Gloria for a Broken Planet
2024; Johns Hopkins University Press; Volume: 24; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/scs.2024.a924581
ISSN1535-3117
Autores Tópico(s)Latin American and Latino Studies
ResumoGloria for a Broken Planet Judith Nangala Crispin (bio) It's been two thousand and twenty-three years since angels, inscrutable snakes of the sun, arrived from deep space in their boats of light, to hover above the Levantine Sea, singing Gloria in excelsis Deo. Their voices are thunderbolts, where the sea unravels in blackness. Parrotfish gather under tides, with the turtles and monk seals, to bear witness. Humpback whales hang vertically in the swell, humming Glorias in the secret language of water. Because whales have always loved falling stars, the synapse-fire of comets, and they understand holiness, if anyone does. This year, on the Great Dividing Range, the whole earth in shadow, Christmas arrives between lightning and torn roots. We pray for the bombs to stop falling, for the world to become holy again. Night reaches its dark wing over us. And we have known the sorrow of fire-bitten trees, the ironbarks and snow gums, rooted grave, where ash gives way to the land's blood and marrow. Foxes sing canticles in the grass behind the shed. There are no angels, no Christ-child with sparrows erupting from the wounds in his hands, But we have each other—this life we've built with its chickens and dogs, its broken cars, the olive trees we planted along the fence. And tonight, Cassiopeia is a jewel in the northern sky. The international space station glides over. There are a trillion stars in the Milky Way. Radiant dust streams toward us from Jupiter and settles in our hair. Tomorrow the kingfisher sun will return, to pour rays like molten metal through our bedroom window. It's the only miracle I need. [End Page 162] Judith Nangala Crispin Judith Nangala Crispin is a Canberra-based poet and visual artist with a background in music, who lives on unceded Yuin Country on the Southern Tablelands. She has published two collections, The Myrrh-Bearers (2015) and poems and photographs made with the Warlpiri, The Lumen Seed (2017); her work explores themes of displacement and identity loss as well as reflections on her own mixed ancestry, and centers on the concept of connection with Country. https://judithcrispin.com. Copyright © 2024 Johns Hopkins University Press
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