once upon a time I was god.

once upon a time I was a star.

when I was a star I was god but I did not know it then.

I do not know it now, either.

 

once upon a time I was born.

on the day I was born, manacles were clamped on my wrists, left and right.

these iron cuffs are time, and space.

time and space bind me to this world, keep me here in this body of human flesh.

trapped in these chains, I have forgotten that I was once a star.

I have forgotten that I was once god.

 

my own voice calls to me from the cavern within my chest,

sending out a song of my once upon a time,

calling me home to god,

calling me home to myself.

 

but like the song of the stars lost in the vacuum of space,

the voice of god inside me collapses into the void where I imagine god should be.

only the faintest whispers echo across the chasm inside me to arrive at the shores of my consciousness.

by then the voice sounds so far and otherworldly I do not recognize it as my own.

i do not trust it to tell me who I am.

 

the chains rattle loud on my wrists, mocking me:

if you are god, save yourself.

I cannot.

 

I am a star screaming into a silent night sky.

I am god imprisoned in human flesh.

I am the stranger whose voice I strain to hear.

I am.