mediocrity, my love.
a shit night you say?
well
i would have to disagree.
it’s just a normal night.
here again, all of us
the same stars
the same ubiquity.
but it’s not so bad.
there have been worse
much
MUCH
worse.
so raise that fucking chin of yours!
look up for once.
here we are, goddamn you!
all of us
in the gutter anyway
so we might as well enjoy the stars.
Eleg
Stardust is falling
From the nighttime sky
Twinkling in the atmosphere
Like their predecessor
It's a beautiful red
Bright and pure
Deeper than that of the blood in our veins
It mingles in the air
Like cobwebs that have fallen from space
They mix and mingle and intertwine
With the rich shade of blue known as moondust
In the fall they combine and combust
Popping and sparking and pulsing
Gliding to the ground like ashes
There, they settle
Like a blanket of snow
Where they sow their seeds and seep
Into the ground below our feet
Sinking like that of water
And from the ground
Where they had lain
Bloomed a beautiful flower of purple-
Opening only in that of night
In honor of which they were born
Stardust
Stardust.
Rarer than the rarest metal,
More precious than a simple ‘must’.
Its light pierces the darkest nights,
Healing and destroying at its user’s will.
Hope and despair aligned.
Stardust,
Synonymous to a fallen star.
Punishment is its descent.
I’ve heard that it is awe-inspiring,
But for me it inspires sadness.
Sadness that something so beautiful, so wondrous,
Had been banished from where angels reside.
Galactic Vision
The new star
the temporary star
glowing in the day
and night
The star was large
I heard
before it burst
in full spectra
Its light reaching
my eyes.
Eyes made of stars
that died
They burst too
millions and billions
of years ago
from across the galaxy
Their dust and energy
spewing out
across space
the non-empty void
Some dust falls
toward singularities
E = m (c * c) and
their escape is radiation
Some dust spirals away
showing a hidden remnant
of a vast
mystery
But my eyes
are made from dust that
cleared interstellar obstacles
and landed here
And now this dust
sees as more dust
flies out, and will perhaps
create eyes like mine.
Stardust threads
Dear sky
How changing you can be
For pale blue with stars vanished was all I yesterday could see.
But then, my gaieties were taken;
And my beliefs
all mistaken!
But, tonight you wear garments made of shiny stars
Now, tell me dear sky
Did you lend him your stars?
For with stardust threads
he stitched all my scars!
Stardust to Stardust
Stardust. That's what we're all made from. The chemicals that build our bodies originated in stardust just the same way we started in our mothers' wombs.
When I told my mother this in tenth grade after I learned it, she laughed at me. "Stardust? Please, Kelsie, you're nowhere near that special."
As always, I sighed and feigned a smile. My mother wasn't the best as making us feel our best, but she was our mother. It may not have been written anywhere, but we were bound by law to love her in some portion.
I went to school the next day with a bruise on my cheek and a scrape on my knee. Of course, they weren't from my mother. She didn't think I stole her cigarettes at all. She hadn't gotten drunk last night and pushed me to the ground after punching me. That was absurd, Mrs. Young, my mother had never laid a hand on any of us.
I lied the bruise and scrape off as an elaborate story about falling from my bike. Despite being battered every day as a child, I had a creative mind. In fact, maybe I had my mother to thank for the creativity in my imagination. After all, I'd spent months on end imagining what it would be like in a loving family, where I would have a father who did not die from alcohol poisoning and two brothers who didn't hate their lives and get locked up in jail. We would sit down for dinner every night, have long, happy conversations, and retire to bed after playing games or watching a movie.
The life I longed for never came, though.
My mother was diagnosed with cancer within two weeks of the cigarette incident.
She died three months after being diagnosed.
I wasn't too torn up.
I'd plunged into my schoolwork as usual to hide from her, did things around the house, and spoke with my brothers. One of them was getting out of jail in two months, and I would live with our aunt until he got out. Then I would move in with him.
Mother was too weak to yell at me, let alone hit me, so I was actually kind of relieved.
Dressed in a brand new black dress, I left the house with my aunt on the day of the funeral. Blonde hair, finally trimmed and tied back the way I liked it, spilled down my back, and my dress swished around my legs. I'd never worn a dress before, and I found I enjoyed it. I'd have to buy more when I was able.
Mother looked exactly the same she did when she passed out. Her blonde hair was shorter than mine, trimmed by her chin. Gaunt, sharp features stared up at us from the coffin. Her tanned hands crossed over her beer-gut of a stomach.
Even if it was a little morbid, I reached out and touched her cheek gently. A small smile crossed my lips. "Goodbye, Mom," I whispered to the corpse.
I could hear her response ringing in my mind. "This isn't 'goodbye,' Kelsie, it's 'see you soon.'"
When I took my seat in the front row of the seats, next to the brother I would soon be living with, Kyle, something left a shiny powder on the hem of my dress. I frowned at it before realizing it was make up.
"Kelsie McCollough has a few words to share with you all about her mother."
I stood slowly, rethinking all of the lies I was going to tell these people. I didn't know if I could do it.
When I faced the group of family and friends, standing behind the microphone and podium, I simply stared. My lips parted a few times, like I was ready to speak, but I stopped before saying anything.
I looked down at my fingers, the ones that had touched my mother's cheek and picked up the shining pink blush.
Swallowing hard, I glanced back up.
"The components that make up the human body originated in stardust," I begun, leaning forward slightly. The group around me simply stared. "Most of the chemicals within our bodies grew into what we have named from stardust, and they fell to Earth for us to find and name. Isn't that awesome?"
Some people laughed and agreed. I caught my aunt's eye, and she grinned at me.
"Mother didn't seem to think so. I told her this, and I told her that the chemicals were born of stardust like we, made of these chemicals, were born of our parents, like we left the mother's womb. Her reply to me was this: "Stardust? Please, Kelsie, you're nowhere near that special." Special- that was what my mother seemed to want. She wanted to go out special, and she wanted to be special, but she never got the chance."
The whole crowd seemed to be holding their breath.
"This is her chance. Ashes to ashes," I said, licking my lips, repeating the minister that had introduced me, "dust to dust. You know what I say to that? Let's transform it. Just for this woman- this abusive, abused, torn apart, drastic disaster of a woman- let's change this. Let's transform it into something new that applies better.
"Ashes to ashes." I say, proud for the first time in my life. "Stardust to stardust. Goodnight and goodbye, Mother. Perhaps I'll see you in the stars one night."
Stardust
A glowing star, burns bright and fast
Dies in explosive finale
Leaving stardust in its chilled wake
Swirling in timeless dances.
Until such time passes, stardust
Clumps together forming new things
New stars, planets, new everything.
A pattern, never ending.
I see you there, near midnight's shroud
Heralded by a shooting star
To mark your importance to me
The sign that I've been waiting for.
To kiss your lips, is to taste stardust fair.
For a thousand stars died to make you mine.
You
your gaze
turns my stomach into
butterflies.
your touch
turns my heart
into a rapid fire gun
and your kiss
turns my whole being
into nothing but stardust.
you make me feel
as if i can never
reach harm,
as if i could never
feel pain again.
you're healing me,
gluing up my tiny
broken pieces,
but you're putting some
of your pieces in the mix
and stealing mine
to patch your missing parts.
we have healed each other
and now i can't live without you.
you are part of me,
and i, you.
all it took was love and a little stardust.