David Athey

Your Initial

Imagine

the sacred

rite of making words

for Constantine the Great

who wanted more copies

of Holy Writ

for the Imperial Library to be

royally lit by the Light that is

ever ancient

ever new, and you,

your face

bathed in candlelight

and dewy sweat,

body trembling (for what

you’ve seen and heard)

blissfully over your initial

scribble—In the beginning

was the Word—

David Athey’s poems, stories, essays, and reviews have appeared in various literary journals and magazines, including Christianity & Literature, Iowa Review, Dappled Things, Berkeley Fiction Review, Windhover, Tampa Review, Relief, Seattle Review, Notre Dame Magazine, Time of Singing, and Harvard Review. Athey lives in South Florida on a small lake with large iguanas. His books, including Art is for The Artist, are available at Amazon.