SALVATION

untitled, from PARIS. 2025. ©Blake Sterling

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a young boy sits by his window,

and all that he doesn’t yet know

is his salvation.

not knowing is the innocent’s salvation. but in their not knowing, they imagine another kind of salvation will come from knowing. so, he trades his innocence for some knowledge, and he finds no salvation.

then, in a new desperation, he searches for innocence-making tools: drugs, drinking, and labors of the damned.

no longer innocent, not his mama’s son, with nothing learned, and no longer a child. he finds himself a lost life before his world even started.

and they say, “be happy.”

and they ask, “what could be so hard in your life?”

and he will one day have to face himself, naked in the mirror, and say, “life. life has been hard.”