To Teach Me of Myself

 

The Universe

is immense;

yet,

we are able to

find ourselves

if

we

pay attention.

 

The Universe

is a map

for beginnings

and endings;

for what-if’s

and what-about’s;

for

mystery.

 

The Universe

is filled with discarded

satellites,

remnants of rockets,

memories of meteorites,

and

wandering

poems

to awaken

souls.

 

 

Watching My Friend Pretend Her Heart Is Not Breaking                                                                                      by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

On Earth, just a teaspoon of neutron star
would weigh six billion tons. Six billion tons
equals the collective weight of every animal
on earth. Including the insects. Times three.

Six billion tons sounds impossible
until I consider how it is to swallow grief—
just a teaspoon and one might as well have consumed
a neutron star. How dense it is,
how it carries inside it the memory of collapse.
How difficult it is to move then.
How impossible to believe that anything
could lift that weight.

There are many reasons to treat each other
with great tenderness. One is
the sheer miracle that we are here together
on a planet surrounded by dying stars.
One is that we cannot see what
anyone else has swallowed.