Athriom -

But tonight, with the frost on the sill and the word still warm in my mouth, I think I heard the faintest scratch of a match.

Which is why it has never burned.

It is not a country. It is not a chemical. It is not a god. But say it three times slowly, and your teeth will feel like the keys of a harpsichord left in a damp cathedral. Ath-ree-om. The middle syllable bends inward, like a hallway that remembers being a throat. athriom

Somewhere.

To enter the Athriom, you must first unlearn the order of your own organs. Your heart must beat in past tense. Your lungs must remember air before there was oxygen. Your eyes must close so tightly that you see the back of your own skull, and then, beyond it, a violet light no spectrum has ever named. But tonight, with the frost on the sill

Athriom.

But tonight, with the frost on the sill and the word still warm in my mouth, I think I heard the faintest scratch of a match.

Which is why it has never burned.

It is not a country. It is not a chemical. It is not a god. But say it three times slowly, and your teeth will feel like the keys of a harpsichord left in a damp cathedral. Ath-ree-om. The middle syllable bends inward, like a hallway that remembers being a throat.

Somewhere.

To enter the Athriom, you must first unlearn the order of your own organs. Your heart must beat in past tense. Your lungs must remember air before there was oxygen. Your eyes must close so tightly that you see the back of your own skull, and then, beyond it, a violet light no spectrum has ever named.

Athriom.