seen as a beautiful mystery from afar,
named and catalogued by guesswork
but never truly explored before.
And when pulled into this orbit,
there can’t really be any return,
any mortal that has traveled
past our vast atmosphere
to pierce through the heavens
would tell you the same thing.
That seeing a world turn on its axis
and grazing the fires that sustain stars
changes everything you once knew,
forever leaves an ethereal mark inside.
The darkness in space seems more fragile,
every particle is a bridge to you,
to the distant nova I can almost touch
with my trembling fingertips.
You’ve always been a galaxy to me,
beautiful globes of pale moons,
the untouched glistening petals
of a terrain I’ve always longed to explore.
And when drawn to this nexus,
suspended as you begin to unfold,
I know there is no going back,
there is nothing but the immediacy
and the flare of a pierced atmosphere
to close in on this celestial glow
where you burn the most.
To this upper echelon of light
that marks me forever inside,
the contact of one fingertip
could reshape all that I am,
align me with your orbit,
and make two bodies crash.
You’ve always been on this course with me,
and I knew there was no going back
from this ache to explore,
our hips are the collision of plates
buried deep below earth,
the contact shaking through planets,
collapsing constellations to reveal
the fragile darkness in our space.
And when those stars die out,
the shockwave releases brilliant light
that gravity pulls back to you,
paints over this celestial form,
this galaxy absorbing my every particle.
