“Khepri” is a scarab-headed sun god, and the inspiration for one of two poems by Sally J. Johnson featured in our Spring 2015 issue. 

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BORN FULLY FORMED
I can tell you about coming
into being about birthing
out bodies from sun shit and earth
to rise again and emerge whole
from darkness from dung from
the lungs of dirt do not stand
witness against me sing my scarab sisters
into the skin of the dead I am born
of the underworld to show you light
lifting my burden across the burning
sky I am born buried
born again alive
in knowing my time

I’ll embalm your beautiful sun
give you darkness at dawn
I’ll tug at your eyelashes
with my antennae wake you
every day until you die

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SALLY J. JOHNSON received her MFA from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington where she served as Managing Editor for the award-winning literary journal Ecotone. Her poetry and nonfiction have appeared or are forthcoming in the Collagist, Bodega, the Pinch, Weave, So to Speak, Everyday Genius and elsewhere. She is a poetry editor for Green Briar Review and works as a publicist in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Find her online:@sallyjayjohnson.