JOHNMICHAEL SIMON POETRY

I watched the shadow creep over you

and then you darkened your face to me

and I shivered, remembering

all the times when

those chills, shivers, childhood fears

of abandonment and worse

were reawakened.

 

Yet somehow your light had re-emerged

at first a thin sliver, then slowly

your full radiance of comfort and forgiveness.

 

But this time is different

scientists tell of stars exploding

then burning themselves out

becoming dead giants whirling coldly

or black holes from which nothing escapes

swallowing the past, planets, moons

together with their music

their epics of war and peace

all disappearing down hungry throats.

 

There’s no going back, I know

our orbits have changed

yet dreamer that I am

I still imagine that we may again be close

perhaps in some other dimension

where solstice and equinox blur into one

at the end of the milky way.