Christelle Oyiri

"I was raised under crucifixes

where every whisper was measured against eternity

I learned early on that the most dangerous prayer

was the one said backwards

Hell is so ordinary:

a body on the verge of collapse,

a mirror that won’t forgive,

desire stretched across every surface

Heaven’s worth

is the tape you found in an attic

buried in static,

hissing like a secret you were not meant to keep

Kemet, dreamt in aluminum

a monument half-remembered, half-invented,

America, the precious counterfeit twin

Fantasy and fracture

This work gathers both paradise and purgatory,

How heavy are memories when casted in metal to survive ?

What is holiness without a lick of transgression ?

What is paradise if not built in the threat of fire ?"­

—C.O., “Heaven’s Worth, Hell on Earth”