So saith the Lord, the freshman kegger proves all.
O major rager, O parable of the house party. Thou
hast it bad for moments like these. How biblical a boy’s
laugh, thy first time hearing him—crackling salt shafts
arcing skyward like a rainbow! Tender how precarious
his baseball cap holdeth, doth not fall from puffed dark hair!

Middle school Sundays reminded thee the Lord giveth
& taketh & oft times He giveth in order to taketh. & tonight,
this party is His work. So too the Solo cup thou holdest,
stolen Heineken, bitter, acrid, warm, stretch of musty basement
shag & ecstatic EDM thy skin & thine ears take in when lo!
in a second thou seest him, laugh ringing like song of songs!

Cup of his own halfway to stubbled chin, head pitched back,
his smiling teeth a prayer, skin aglow against heavenly
host of dollar store fairy lights, the rolling boil of youth,
of other bodies, so powerful, cool, angelic. Thine eyes chug
his boyish joy, slope of shoulders, hat hanging, hanging,
hanging—even this the Lord shall take, but how beautiful he is!

As thy next breath cresteth, grief leaketh in, the future the Lord
hath in store—thou shalt claw to keep this moment over days, over
weeks, thy first college classes, but thou shalt forget this love,
forget this as all things are forgot. The next second arriveth,
the old one passeth away. The boy’s eyes open while he adjusts
his cap, meet thine. Thou smileth & so doth he. Amen.

Published December 6th, 2020

Weston Richey is a writer, poet, and academic originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. They earned a BA in philosophy and English from New York University and an MFA in creative writing from Rutgers University - Newark, where they now teach. Weston's work has also appeared in Strange Horizons and FreezeRay Poetry.

Delphine Hennelly is a New York based-painter, originally from Vancouver, Canada. Hennelly received a BFA from Cooper Union and an MFA from Mason Gross School of Visual Arts at Rutgers. Galleries that have exhibited Hennelly’s work include Carvalho Park Gallery in Brooklyn, Mother Gallery in Beacon, Pt.2 Gallery in Oakland, Central Park Gallery in Los Angeles , Projet Pangée in Montreal, Tripp Gallery in London, and Galerie Kandlhofer in Vienna. Along with six awards from Rutgers University, Hennelly has received the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Award three times, and the Rema Hort Mann Foundation Award. Hennelly’s work is currently on view, with Massey Klein Gallery in New York City, as part of a joint exhibition, In the Garden, with Howard Fonda.