apocrifa
is a nongendered love story told in verse, the journey of a lover and
their beloved finding each other, falling apart, and then creating
their own way to love together.
apocrifa
imagines a love that sits comfortably at the crossroads of commitment
and freedom. The developing intimacy between a lover and their
beloved is propelled by a compendium of words for love, romance, sex,
relationships, and affection that do not lend to direct translation
in English. Serving as both titles and markers of the progression of
time, these poetically defined words highlight the growing tension of
one who claims “i cannot love you enough/to unlove the wide world”
and yet is inextricably drawn to the offer of “a place of
sustenance, rest, and my delight in your very bones.” Heavily
inspired by the metaphors and structures of Song of Songs (or Song of
Solomon), from the Apocryphal books of the Bible, the characters
speak to each other with contrapuntal call-and-response while letting
us into their private thoughts through epistles, sestinas, odes, and
other poetic forms.
