Angelic Armendariz, with her poem “Nonbeliever”, distinguishes three distinct stages in questioning faith, spirituality, and God. Exploring those feelings of being lost and trying to understand faith, “Nonbeliever” presents Angelic’s own spiritual journey after facing trauma and loss in her life.
Nonbeliever
Phase 1:
How many of these communions
do I have to do
before I’ve eaten a whole Jesus?
Phase 2: How can we become me become He;
how can I look at the bellies of birds,
the necks of giraffes, the liquidation
of caterpillars, the eyes of my brother,
and not believe?
Phase 3: How am I not alone in this falling
under? By scraping the ink off my tongue
and smearing these words on paper
I’m falling into His hands and I’m flying.
Angelic Armendariz
Angelic (Angie) Armendariz currently works as an Education Assistant in an Elementary school while pursuing her MFA at UNO. She has three doggie fur-kids that are spoiled rotten. Her Twitter handle is: @AshenanigansA