04 April, 2021: Supernova
Read a Poem
Supernova
By Kelly Bancroft
Ten billion light years away, the universe is
adolescent. This morning you stand
at the sink, indifferent
to my sentiments. In my hand, my favorite
still life of you: guitar and torn
jeans, thighs worn
to a galaxy-white taking me back to the
first light of you
in me, your hair then
jet and dense as the dark energy I learn
today accelerates the bloom of the universe.
This morning, the most powerful instruments— love
and the astonishing brightness
of memory—can barely discern
your old tenderness. The mirror bends your
brilliant face and razor, your incidental kiss.
The supernova sucks matter from its
companion star, counteracts more familiar
forces such as gravity.
There is no force so near to
me as this: scent of shaving,
your skin like honey,
my dying star.
“Supernova” by Kelly Bancroft, from Two Dreams from the Afterlife. BlazeVox. 2020. Used by permission of the author.
Bio
Kelly Bancroft's prose, poetry and plays have been produced and published widely. Two Dreams of the Afterlife is her first full-length collection. She lives in Youngstown and teaches at Hiram College and the Martin P. Joyce Juvenile Justice Center.
Write a Poem
Write a poem to an aunt or your aunts as a group (or uncle, or uncles as a group). If you don’t have aunts or uncles, write about a fictive aunt or uncle.