The Gospel according to Sappho by Aisling Timoney (Ireland, 22)

Come and bring your heart to the alter
I am an eternal Father’s daughter.

A sacrilegious offering to a God
Searching for cardinal glory
Prayers made upon grazed knees
Pressed against the pew’s hard tuffet
While leaden lies escape priestly lips.
An offer of eternal salvation
In exchange for some ungodly transformation.
Devour me whole, for I denounce no sinners
And mine cannot be confessed.

The church bells chime
And like cannibals, you consume his mortal flesh
He dissolves upon the tongue
And his blood stains thy lips crimson red
He, whom you call the Chosen One?
I am no Lazarus; I do not need his help.
Make me a martyr for all your doomed daughters,
Sapphic devotion will soothe our souls.

Bury my body in Lesbos,
I’ll let the worms feast upon my flesh
Until the soil saturates my skin.
And from your un-consecrated grounds
Bones and nothing more
I will wake and turn every Father’s daughter
Into something more.




Aisling Timoney is an English literature student at Maynooth University where she has been partaking in the university's selected creative writing modules led by Kildare's Art Council writer in residences this past academic year. These classes have pushed Aisling to begin publishing her work this year. Aisling's work is inspired by her love of mythology and delves into themes of girlhood, religious guilt and the relationship between body and nature. Aisling spends her spare time devouring coffee and books. She is a proud mum to her two dogs Misty and Daisy.