Photons Fired
I’m reading an article during church revealing how
after hours of test-subjects sat clammy-handed
in the dark, biologists determined yes, humans glow.
Instead of listening to decrepit Brother Gordon
of the Almighty Church of Christ’s discussion
about how the youth of today is corrupted by the media
or allowing his right-wing convervativisms
to obstruct my proverbial lungs,
I continue on to discover that infrared images examined
confirm all Homo sapiens capable of bioluminescence,
if only at 1/1,000th the visible spectrum.
When I finish the article and refocus,
his pneumonia-speech engages my gag reflexes:
women should know their place
and when to speak.
But I don’t need a scientist to tell me
I sparkle, faint as a specter, against any sermon about:
You’re [wrong/
stupid/
too young/
not a man]
Ashton Nicole Allen is currently an undergraduate student in the SFA State University Creative Writing Program. She is minoring in literature and doing thesis work in Poetry. A native to the Nacogdoches/Lufkin community, she lives and works in the area.