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Rachelle Rahmé



Alternative
Or perhaps Apollo himself
orders death and sex to twist
like a confection
golden skin on a golden ray
after all we are only human here
being so detectives of glory
and sanguine sweetness
we sniff it out, fall in awe
leer after the radiant
burn-core
gratuitous
gluttony in giving praise
forgivable this vice
so radiant, the shield
sun disc
perhaps the chariot itself
is ignited by the old Zippo






Thru-Vision

Death annuls private naughts
muffled antipodes, essays on blue

Today is my half arm in sleepwalking granite stub
ultra-violet

A solvent worn solitary walk
needless to say sown past the blue door to puce

Without me, my locked iris excepting
scenes in a direct factory landscape for vision






Light as Weapon

When like a child with magnifying glass
I am direct or demonstrative of science
burning in two the halves that part
branch, crawl
reanimate summer’s newly laid tar

Soft wax thinking heats a mutable impression
buds holding onto spring
warm carceral halftones tones
eschew day’s half-
split
cardinal diremption

What one knows and to that effect
imprints in soft wax, my sun
when I
how excessively undivided
an emblem to your losses



Born in Jounieh, Lebanon and based in Brooklyn, New York, Rachelle Rahmé is an independent scholar and poet, author of Count Thereof Upon the Other’s Limbs (2019). Her translation of Georges Bataille, 27 Poems on Death, was recently published by o•blēk editions (2021).  She is a St. Mark’s Poetry Project fellow for 2021-2022.

Read next: Poetry by Maureen Owen



Founded in 2020, Three Fold is an independent quarterly based in Detroit that presents exploratory points of view on arts, culture, and society in addition to original works in various media, including visual art, literature, film and the performing arts. We solicit and commission contributions from artists, writers, and activists around the world. Three Fold is a publication of Trinosophes Projects, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization located in the historic Eastern Market neighborhood in downtown Detroit. Click here to check out Three Fold’s events page and view a schedule of the publication’s on-site activities.

Three Fold recognizes, supports, and advocates for the sovereignty of Michigan’s twelve federally-recognized Indian nations, for historic Indigenous communities in Michigan, for Indigenous individuals and communities who live here now, and for those who were forcibly removed from their Homelands. We operate on occupied territories called Waawiiyaataanong, named by the Anishinaabeg and including the Three Fires Confederacy of Ojibwe (Chippewa), Odawa (Ottawa), and Bodewatomi (Potawatomi) peoples. We hold to commit to Indigenous communities in Waawiiyaataanong, their elders, both past and present, and future generations.