Jesi Bender's mystifying poem "The Map to G-d" has been paired with a 2021 golden dévoré velvet Dior dress by Maria Grazia Chiuri. Adorned with hand-painted astrological signs by Roman artist Pietro Ruffo, this Tarot-inspired dress from Chiuri's 2021 haute couture collection was omitted from Matteo Garrone's short (yet labyrinthine) film Le Château du Tarot (The Tarot Castle), yet it successfully captures the film's elemental essence. Like Chiuri's shimmering golden dress, Bender's poem - which resembles the shape of the alchemical symbol of the 'Hand of the Philosophers' - includes a hand that breathes a similarly radiant language ("bomb," "quartz," "metal spiders"). In terms of Tarot, many connections can be made here: The Magician, The Star, The Devil. If it's poetry you seek, Bender suggests we look no further than the palm of a hand.
— Paul Cunningham, Editor
The Map to G-d
Divinination by Daniel Martin Diaz
*
trillium
pre- new leaf ward-
bomb tooth heard ed key
+plus angry right in single
min-s skull an ear tangle
object tilted roots of snake
charge penta- the third angel
quartz gram molars wings big
the tears and stars scatter in your palm bell
at the center is all sight the mind’s eye hook
the flames alight from the experience handle
of this world hungry like a hearth for honey
more its heat makes blood or sweat bee fly
or tears compounds growth 20-seated ugly sun
polyhedron unperturbed by those metal spiders
umbilical scissors wait to sever connections to
outside that meets your alien heel pressure to
bring us to heaven where gods make men
new promises of a breathing eminence
a pulse in the guts of your wrist
Jesi Bender is an artist from Upstate New York. She is the author of the novels Rhododendron (forthcoming 2027), Child of Light, and The Book of the Last Word, the plays Crux and Kinderkrankenhaus, and the poetry chapbook Dangerous Women. Her shorter work can be found in FENCE, Denver Quarterly, Sleepingfish, and other places. www.jesibender.com
