Illuminated Manuscript – a poem by Marion Evalee

Illuminated Manuscript
 

I am the flourish,
Not the trumpet,
 
Yet I am at least
Ornamental,
 
If not instrumental,
To the prophecy—
 
Come to think of it,
I am in the same
 
Position as God the
Father, always
 
Sky, not the sun, neither
The accumulating
 
Nor dispersing clouds.
But I am a handful
 
Of colors (available to men 
In the medieval period), the
 
Revelation
Incomplete without
 
The whole sum
Of foreground, middle ground,
 
And back, animate
And invisible musics,
 
And the spirit of
It,
 
Coursing through it all.

Marion Evalee (they/she), formerly Justin Burnett, has appeared in Montage, Survivor Lit, The Boston Compass, Neologism, and Willows Wept Review. A selection of their poetry was featured in the anthology 14 International Younger Poets, edited by Philip Nikolayev.