Book of Beginnings (Fragments) – Sofija Popovska

October 23, 2025

i. Lazarus

 

You met me at a strange time in my life

 

Before my life

 

You met me in a dream

Sick, wandering

 

That winter had possessed me with a walking curse

Its little life decaying into longing

The city offered little life

A heap of broken images

Of played-out cards

 

I was incurable back then, and neither

Alive, nor dead

 

Oracular,

Scavenging the stars for scraps of hope

And faintly sibilant –

Praying to die under my breath

 

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God,

Have mercy on me

This parched rock gives no shelter

From the naked sun.

 

Repeating

Until it twinned my breath

And trembled in my gait –

The treble of an ancient rib

Touched by a sandstorm

 

The earth won’t mourn her dead

Walking inside them

Mixing honeysuckle

With heavy blood

 

You found me then –

The wound of years

In fourth day linen

 

Lifting my death mask

You said: come up

Take off

Your grave

 

You smiled

 

A vacuum had opened

The sea rose up

And took me back

 

The medicine of movement

A pair of eyes relaxing

Into mine

 

I recognized your eyes

I waited in your dream

Enclosed in amber

To see myself in them

Smiling like Lazarus

Come home

Into the dawn