Nova
©December 7th, 2018
By Vijaya Sundaram
A star went Nova.
The light in the sky
Stayed still, shining
For thousands of years.
The night was loud with music.
The spheres hummed in
Electric tension on their
Stretched orbits,
And stars buzzed like sparks
From a broken fuse.
Mists formed and re-formed
Winged and vast.
A silence lit up a scrubbed land,
And everything held its breath.
The sky bent in benediction,
Knelt in supplication.
Awe was a thing not easy
To come by, and when awe
Filled a land, the land listened.
But now, our lands are deaf
And blind, and full of rage.
Mothers and children are turned away,
Fathers shot, families riven in two.
There are no stars left – just
Black holes sucking out love,
Sucking out compassion,
Spinning around our feet.
We trip over black holes,
Spiral down an unending drain,
Our screams at an event horizon
Stretching forever, and ever.
Our lands are broken, and
Awe has turned to dread.
The sky turns away, weary
And the earth looks inward,
Seething, full of righteous magma.
We have broken the universe,
With our hubris and our sorrow,
And our unending greed.
We will be buried
In an mudslide of regret,
Perhaps, the stars will shine again,
And some of us, stuck in mud,
Will see them, as we lie
Open-eyed, blind as moles,
Arms stretched out from shoulders,
Legs splayed, still as stones,
While the stars go out,
Nova after nova after nova.
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