ALTERNATE MYTHOLOGIES OF RAGE & EXILE, IN FRAGMENTS

The video game Assassin’s Creed: Origins follows an ancient Egyptian assassin named Bayak, and his wife Aya, who work to protect the people under Ptolemy XIII’s rule. Their son was martyred by the Ptolemic police state, and so the game follows Bayak & Aya’s quest to dismantle the entire state via a chain of assassinations.

or was i the wind that sang the river -bed into gentlequiet & not the doe whose stone -soft tongue could trustthat water? or was ithe parted flesh whichbetween cartilage & skin beneath the nose’s wide bridge& not the steel that pierced it? that i could altarthe body’s topology& not forget its formershell— that i could unbecome with nail & steel withoutperishing in the crucifixion— when i bleed i bleed softas stone’s ripple & it is tame, unrevolutionaryin leak—that i could even witness myself outside of my self—a stranger calls me militant, says smile for the picture, you look like you could killsomeone like she forgot our gods razed temples before wewrote them into patient—for what is a god if nota mxn in the sky we crafted into our own image? a whitewoman says you were tender once & that is her imaginedholy: my aunt sees steel in my nostril & asks if i’ve forgottenmy roots & that is a holy she clings to: i set firein another stranger’s mouth & that is a holy i canrun fromsuppose the stranger’s mouth was instead a countrywho birthed me in swaddling ash & dared call me ungrateful—suppose, instead, i run— & splitcities in my graceless path like it was instinct: i saw a manwho set fire to me before in the reflection of a glass window& my body wasn’t & i fled before even processing the ghosti witnessed:in another reality, i would smile like i smileat weddings while burning history or—i would quench my fists who wantedto wear him crimson & the truth is both realities scared mein that i saw too much of myself in every reflection & so i fled—& so i soft— my own defense mechanism—