outer space

By Josephine Clay

Stars laugh as they combust

bearing halos of sacred fire,

flickering relics of lost time,

exhaustion consumes all,

those beautiful corpses,

those beloved shells.

Whales swim through interstellar swells 

and vanish into pockets of porous space

haunted by their silenced songs,

stardust erupts from their blowholes

and trails behind, molecules mingling, like

a run of neon salmon migrating upstream.

Maiden, Mother, Crone, three-faced moon,

daughter born of violence,

infertile soil sings for her tidal sisters,

covens convene under her loving light,

crater-skinned Selene,

pain is power. 

Prophetic universe, I am floating in the Milky Way,

Ursa Major is clawing at the dark and calling for me.

---

Josephine Clay

11/23/21

Josephine Clay is a fourth-year English major at UC Davis. Her passions include stargazing, writing poems, and going on walks through nature.