J. C. Pankratz
J.C. Pankratz attends DePauw University as an English Writing major. She hails from central Indiana and recently had her first play, Gerda's Story: Memoir of a Holocaust Survivor, co-adapted with Tim Good, produced at her university.
Xenoglossia
“All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit
and began to speak in other tongues
asthe Spirit enabled them.” (Acts 2:4)
One woman's closed mouth
marinates her settled tongue
in cold saliva gasoline.
God strikes a match
and lights the tip of her tongue
like a red birthday
candle. Fire rises up the insides
of her cheeks. Flames sear
the gaps between her teeth
until heat melts jaws open,
spitting hot spark syllables
singing and sizzling in the air.
Branded tongue curls
around blazing spirit talk,
charred lips rippling magma.
Her mouth is meteor.
Hyrmutyr ks moerteer.
Hllamuhtryksgmotikaka