Sin

Hebrews 13:4 Marriage is honorable among all,

and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and

adulterers God will judge.

She tries to remember what it feels like
to be inside skin and she remembers
but stays without. Instead, she chases blue lotus
to relieve her extratropical cyclones. She’s scared
of the word amour. Opening the Old Testament
to search for questions that she can’t answer,
she places white tulips outside her temple,
waiting for someone to water them. Allah
drains the vase. She pours holy water over touch.
He begged her to wear a white shawl to cover her
from others in the world. She eats bread and drinks
her cup of wine and still can’t be promised healing.
When robes teach lessons, she struggles
to keep her mouth shut. Her sin lays underneath
a reservoir that no one can justify. Her sin
is a man who tied a handkerchief around her hands
and covered her mouth. The only word she learns is suffering.

Nicole Favors is an Afro-Mexican poet and writer. She studied Professional Writing at Woodbury University and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in the Spring of 2023. Nicole is also a former Editor-in-Chief and Production Editor for the university’s national literary magazine, MORIA, and a staff writer for 7500 Culture & Arts Magazine. Her poetry has been published in Obsidian Literature and Arts, The Nubian Queen Confronts a Future Mother-in-Law (2023), You Need To Hear This, Unknowing Identity (2023), The Sims Library Of Poetry, The Little Girl on The Swing (2021), and the Young American Poetry Digest, Why I Love Parents (2013). You can find her on Instagram @npfavors.