Lizzy Burnam 🐞

even if the moon has as smooth a surface as god’s winking eye 
even if we name it Sun-day to claim the light as ours 
even if James and John and Judas were once a daisy chain of satellites 
even if the tides don’t rise and fall like disciples of the hour
even if heaven itself is incorruptible 
even if there’s no money to be made in art or lute or lunacy
even if Eve spit out the apple 
even if all one has to do is look to see 
even if the bell tower does fall
even if the manuscripts are seized and burned
even if prayer keeps our heads motionless atop the broken spines
even if we banish the dawn 
even if we claim no intelligent dialogue between Juno and Jupiter 
even if we toss the girls in water and their bodies refuse to float 
even if the blade of sacred love is only sharpened by the sacrilegious 
even if the gates of hell are held shut by a knot of thin rope 
even if the telescope was drunk 
even if one could alienate the Pope 
even if wars are fought and won to avoid revising the whole damn book 
even if Venus is a fickle wife adorned in pearls and poison 
even if a life alone is not worth living for the man we called a fool 
even if the heartbeat paces the pendulum 
even if it is ill jesting with edge tools
even if a good astronomer makes a bad theologian 
—still, it moves!