Ninevah
He is the whale: wet and cave-like. I am Jonah
entering through the mouth. Lighting signal fires inside him,
his belly. A vessel of sin,
hollow and salt swollen.
This body of whale fat and calcified bone
is a tabernacle. What I am looking for is God
in the signal fires
and cigarette smoke that live in him,
his stomach. A vessel of salvation. A sloshing sea
sings the song of absolution. He teaches me
how to light wet cigarettes. Teasing out their cave-like
glow: large and hollow. It radiates like laughter.
I am looking for smoke and whalesong in God’s stomach, but Ninevah is full of fire
and I am Jonah and he is the whale.
Though some disagree, Jasmine Cui likes to call herself a 90’s kid because she was born in 1999. She is majoring in Political Science, Economics and Violin Performance at SUNY Geneseo. Her celebrity crush is Kurt Vonnegut and she aspires to be like her parents who are first generation Americans and fought an extraordinary battle for their place in this country.