in a joking manner, he pulled my leg
out from under my mother’s womb.
sundered. i cried out like thunder,
beautiful view. magnificent desolation.
admiration flattered my mother’s frustration
with a standing ovation in a bedside vase.
faced with foretaste, greeted by starvation,
i was placed in my very own space station.
a part of a constellation and considered a sun,
i wondered just where i was from.

© Matthew Harlovic