Octopus Theology

To know pain, I ate my own leg.
This is a way of suffering:
I tunnel into my darkness
a cave of ink, then become one
in a ring of unburied stones.
So I attend, God of Stillness.
Permit me my devouring.
From each stump, another leg grows.

Christopher Bakken is the author of Eternity & Oranges (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2016). He directs writing workshops in Thessaloniki and Thasos, Greece, and teaches at Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania.