"starstuff" poems
the bow of your back, taut
sweat sticky
opiated and fizzing,the air stirs
and does not settle
the garden caged between your ribs
cracked and sprouting,paint
fumes sputtering out of your
fingertips,wild
unruly kind of-
give and take,sway
bring me to my knees kind of
hurricane
the bow of your mouth, sweet
spit tacky
thunderous and crowing,skin
smelling of smoke and apples
the starstuff wrapped in your fist
aching and bruised,your knuckles
purpling and swollen,wild
unruly kind of-
give and take,sway
bring me to my knees kind of
hurricane
Dec 27, 2015
Dec 27, 2015 at 11:51 PM UTC
Did you know?
I have vines growing around my ribs now.
A tree growing in my guts where I used to hold galaxies.
Churning stardust catching between teeth,
Painting my lips.
Seeping out of my skin and into the sink.
I am a book of metaphors and paradox.
I am nothing at all.
I speak you fair with a liars tongue,
All made of silver and moondust.
Easy words.
I am celestial,
And though your starstuff still makes me sick in the mornings,
Picking your shine from my teeth
All your refuse still inside me wretched into the sink.
Though my limbs are scarred with an effort to see my own galaxies
I am through obsessing over celestial souls.
Too many boys and girls with stars in their eyes
Or Saturn's rings around their fingers
Have caught me with lunar promises and magic fallen from careless lips
Like meteor showers.
I'm rid of my stars.
Now I've been planting flowers in my ribs
The vines mingle with a web of forget-me-nots and bleeding hearts
Lavender buds sprouting from old scars
I pass the 3 am itch off as them growing
Learn to ignore it.
Feb 19, 2017
Feb 19, 2017 at 11:19 PM UTC
darling,
lift that fingertip away from your scars
and trace these ragged map-lines instead
here, here are better roads to take
than loneliness
so maybe your knuckle feels much too bare
but know that our fingers are not made to sit waiting
for a ring –
they are built to hold
so hold – find another set of fingers
grasping for a stronger pair of hands
there is nothing more beautiful than two small limbs
making a home in each other
or better yet, when your bones feel
too big for his too-full arms and too brittle
for the weight of your sadness
hold yourself together, never let go
when the night is too full of night
to see the stars, take a mirror and try to
search for the starstuff in you
you. the point between history and tomorrow
the most graceful of reckonings
the steady hum of more, more beneath cracking skin
you. the sum of all things soft and true
and remember: those bones were never built to
shoulder the world
they were only ever meant
to carry you
Feb 14, 2016
Feb 14, 2016 at 1:31 AM UTC
There are tongues
hidden away
inside cabinets,
fingers pressed
between the floorboards,
members ******
into dresser drawers --
You caressed them
lovingly,
every tooth
and freckle
turned over
in your memory,
you play them over
as you sleep
And every
once in awhile,
their faces
gulp to life
beneath your chest,
and maybe
your heart beat
quickly
for a moment,
and you whispered
to yourself:
thank god,
this day
has finally
come
--
His kindergarten
dreams
his sugar sweet
mouth
his cream soft
tongue,
they succumbed
to you like beasts
trapped beneath
the riverbed
You let them float,
dry tongues hang out
between bloodied lips,
you touched their lips
in the darkness
and the dance
continued
until morning
And later, caught
up in the nightmare
you stared into
the sky. Maybe
the full moon reached
out and touched you,
maybe you smiled
But you said,
thank god;
thank god I am
the man I am
--
And something made you,
starstuff shaped and twisted
until they formed those fingers,
those hands those eyes
the brows that would furrow
in the darkness of that closet
until it came down
over your head
and as the memories
surged through
your mind?
I hope they
came first,
one wailing scream
pushing
through your heart
before you succumbed
thank god,
thank god
Apr 12, 2012
Apr 12, 2012 at 11:59 PM UTC
Underneath moon dust
Lies a glimmer of lost hope
Igniting space dreams
One day we will merge
We will be a nebula
And a red dwarf too
Heat death is so far
That for now, I am happy
To be a planet
Jul 21, 2015
Jul 21, 2015 at 12:48 PM UTC
We are of supernova
Out of blinding
Wicked light
Starstuff filtered
By dreams of Jehovah
Was evolution
Evolved us the fight
From constructs
Of a periodic table
To the beast
That is modern Mann
Monkeys cursed with reason
And the need
To take all ya can
Don't you ever wonder
Why you feel the way
You feel,
Calling down the thunder
When one,
***** up behind the wheel
All of us feed the darkness
Ah, the voices in the head
Painting reality in madness
Makes us the walking dead. Hy
May 26, 2013
May 26, 2013 at 8:36 PM UTC
'Tis in the darkest hour that
... shines so on one's heart path:
Where who, what, when, how,
Where, and sometimes why,
Yet, never Y2K, are unanswered
By the you that is to be, whilst gleaned.
Then, not receding from reality,
Evolving lights one's footsteps
That followed none, leaving no trace
And saving the human race,
Which echo on forever, in all ways, always.
Even shadows speak of the light.
Oct 31, 2019
Oct 31, 2019 at 1:06 AM UTC
my bones are yours for holding & we watch the planets collide. your naked knees bowed against my newborn flesh. i don’t trust anyone with the moon & where were you when the world collapsed? the universe broke when i learned to love you, forbidden symmetry found in some terrible tangle of muscles & tissue. i wore my favorite old t-shirt, cotton stained with blotted cream & coffee, you clung to me, frenetic fingers begging for some semblance of union. we so blurred lines became invincible in our quaking presence. we are entwined, a knotted strand of genetic material & starstuff, quoting communist daughters’ poetry & commanding a listen. listen. carl sagan is my personal jesus, I tell you, for nothing is romantic like biology. there are notches in my hips for your resting elbows, your trembling palms, this is where you belong. young eyes cracked open wide, we are spinning into the depths of some luminous night, human shells shed far behind. we are divine. we are celestial. this is who we are.
Jul 9, 2014
Jul 9, 2014 at 12:10 AM UTC
If I'm made up of starstuff
Recycle me
Strip me
You're wasting me
Let me be
Nothing
Dust
Put me in the center of the universe
In a vast nothing
Of every beautiful little thing
That I don't understand
And leave me there
Let me keep my eyes
Jul 26, 2014
Jul 26, 2014 at 5:16 AM UTC
Here! Take this stick
They are coming for you
This is the fight of your life
you versus the lions
with naught but a stick in your hands
the distant roars a constant reminder
of the shadows in your memories
you cannot cry out for help
with an elephant on your chest
you can't even turn away
From the trainwreck of your life
drugged in a chemical cocktail
that your genes made for you
forced into your system
by little sensitive triggers
or really nothing much at all
a roller coaster you never wanted on
buckled in and you can't get out
you can't get out
you cant' escape the darkness
that closes in on your vision
or the racing of your heart
hammering and fluttering all at once
terrified that this is how you die
while also kind of excited
knowing that you are dead anyway
what is one day sooner?
it would be so easy
just a little slip and a bit of blood
or a quick trigger and a bullet
the brainpan goes squish
it would be so easy
to drop this stick and fall upon it
like some old fashiioned tale
I wish I could help you
to tell you that stick is really a wand
and you are capable of magic
with a flick of the wrist
you can start to change it all
that the lions are real
but they are very slow
with gums instead of teeth
that these shadows are only there
because you did not add light
they will recede and never leave
but they also won't have control
I wish I could help you
but all I can do
is remind you that what you hold
is not just a stick
and that you are not just sick
you are not your condition
but made of starstuff and determination
that you once had dreams too
and how much I love
the legacy of your heart
written in your eyes
pain and joy and compassion
I wish I could tell you that I too
learned to use that magic
that my lions became kittens
soft and sweet with just a little bite
and my shadows became shade
that I rest under when the world is too much
because it always will get that way
you will have good days
and bad days
and both are ok
it's not easy to wave that stick
it's not easy to roar back at the dark
this is the fight of your life
but you, and your life
are worth every swing
because you are perfect
and kind
and made of magic.
Oct 9, 2017
Oct 9, 2017 at 8:18 AM UTC
Mumble through a labyrinth world--
A cacophonous lyre's stringing.
Sheep in wolf's clothes--
Are half as dangerous--as
My sorry symphony.
In the tiger-fur rarity of your singing, ember-sky eyes
Ghost stars crumble their memories over morning.
The trickster god pays respects when we smile our mutual challenges--
Crosses her rays from one side of earth to the next,
Looking for a collision.
Jul 16, 2014
Jul 16, 2014 at 1:32 PM UTC
your fingertips are coated with stardust
from the other day when you dipped into
the midnight skyscape as though
it were paint and I could smell it on you,
the faerie-light, confectionary sugar scent
of hazy dreams the color of moon-bathed water
i clasped your hands gingerly because
everyone knows that starstuff is sticky and steadfast
and you told me that the oceans don’t
follow the moon for the fun of it
i don’t remember much of what came after
because you had aligned your fingers so
precisely against mine that I could feel the remnants
of a thousand dying universes caught
in the creases of my thumbs
i soon learned that handsoap only applies
to the earthly, just like water doesn’t even
touch stains on the soul
Aug 31, 2015
Aug 31, 2015 at 8:21 PM UTC
I started reading the letter
It read: I always loved the magics, miracles of the universe. But I never found a small piece of love from the universe for me. So there's no point being a part of the universe. I quit. I love you ...
I wished I could have made you realize that the universe loved you more than I did.
After all,
I would have been a fool not noticing
the way the sunshine played with your hair
the way the raindrops slipped slowly from your lips
the way the wind flew only to feel your body
the way the stars twinkled praising your beauty
the way the rainbow silently dissolved the colour of your eyes with himselfs'
the way the lightning appeared to frighten u and feel your breaths
the way different beautiful, gorgeous, wonderful, lovely stars in the universe gave up their life to contribute their 'starstuff ' to prepare a gorgeous living thing
But you never realized the thing because
You were an astrophile
I was a philosopher..
Aug 23, 2018
Aug 23, 2018 at 7:52 PM UTC
oh my dear, are we not made of starstuff
are we not glittering like the night sky
smiling like nebulas and laughing like galaxies
we'll swing together in tandem
dancers to an antimatter beat
gas giants and red dwarfs watch on but
we only have eyes for each other
and
all the constellations know, dear
are we not the Alpha Centauri of the Earth
Aug 18, 2019
Aug 18, 2019 at 4:40 AM UTC
you are made of many girls,
all longing to be lighter,
softer, sweeter, less hurt,
less intense, not
a burden to bear.
your kiss scalds with the promise
of forevers. you swore your allegiance
to boys who were unsure of you,
left them dizzied & breathless,
yearning for the empty space
you once filled,
the missing lodestone,
left them lost.
you struggled ceaselessly through the fire,
rubbed salt in your own wounds.
i can still trace the story of your suffering
in scar tissue sewn across wrists.
but you need never apologize.
the wildfires burning in your wake
may have scorched & singed your skin,
but you are not yet scattered ashes.
do not say ‘I’m sorry’ for survival.
your brain is a battleground,
marred with years of misuse,
but you need never apologize for what you are.
when they ask about your flaws, tell them
what it took to get from then to now.
tell them you are lionhearted.
remember, you are a cosmic body.
your bones are made of starstuff
& when you breathe in,
welcome the universe
filling your lungs.
Mar 13, 2014
Mar 13, 2014 at 11:51 AM UTC
even in the shadows
of your love
i can still see
the stars that fall
from your eyes,
i hear your heartbeat
and i know
that although i am lost
you are here
in the darkness with me
and so the dark
doesn't feel so bad.
Jul 15, 2020
Jul 15, 2020 at 3:27 PM UTC
do Orion and
the Pleiades
ever gaze at
you and me?
for we are what
they hope to be,
begot by stars,
a conscious sea,
and even pain
means we feel things
Aug 31, 2024
Aug 31, 2024 at 8:14 PM UTC
'Tis in the darkest hour that
One foot follows the other,
... shines so on one's heart path,
Where, who, what, when, how,
Where, and sometimes why,
Yet, never Y2K, are unanswered
By the you that is to be, whilst gleaned.
Then, not receding from reality,
One step leads to another,
Evolving lights one's footsteps
That followed none, leaving no trace
And saving the human race,
Which echo on forever, in all ways, always.
Even shadows speak of the light.
Nov 8, 2019
Nov 8, 2019 at 6:22 AM UTC
Pages rippling,
Quickly pushing through the years
My mind is a casino shuffling machine
Rapid fire, every card is
Every face bleeding through
Anchored memories, subsurface stillness
Reality is the crooked blade--
I now realize
I was always looking for
Everything that wasn't them
Different hair, different eyes
Why are they all blurring together
Old slides on a movie screen
Staring back at me.
Vindictive, hostile, blaming.
I was scrambling for the ideal of novel,
New and transposed.
Enough to break me down into molecules,
Toss me into atoms
Throw my essence against the starstuff and dark spaces between--
But there is no ripple effect.
No unseen unclothing me.
The faces keep bleeding through
I keep wading, riffling, sifting through the sands of time
It falls;
Between and all
around me.
Sep 24, 2019
Sep 24, 2019 at 11:22 PM UTC
Our souls are fierce flames
That can’t be vanquished by death
They burn on and on
Even time's harsh hand
Can't efface the work of love
Which lasts forever
We are remembered
Inspiring smiles and tears
And actions that speak
Life keeps going on
Better for having had us
We walk on, beyond
Then we re-emerge
Our particles become parts
Of flowers and trees
Becoming starstuff
Arriving at infinite
Space once again we
Resume what we were
Bright celestial matter
Inspiring with light
Nov 23, 2016
Nov 23, 2016 at 11:59 PM UTC