December 21, 2022
Mom/the middle at the end
I borrowed your pain and
the pills they sent
to subdue the orbit of
impotence
until gravity softened,
releasing the mass
of our bodies
untethered.
When your atoms dispersed
my reflection fled,
the refraction of light
caught in a chasm,
a stylus trapped in a
hollowed groove
the turntable purling,
purposeless.
Now I sing to fill the
negative space,
to find myself
in the absence of form,
my farraginous face
a Rubin’s vase,
matter
seeking countenance.
My nucleonic notes
collide,
composed of
incandescent hydrogen,
my hot core the
cadence of fusion,
rising in coruscant
crescendo.
I am Helios
driving my chariot
to horizon’s edge,
my flaming horses
unbridled,
not knowing myself
until across the vast abyss
Aristarchus named me sun.
___
Originally published by Cathexis Northwest Press. Reprinted with permission of the author.
© the author
by Lisa Delan
Soprano Lisa Delan can be heard singing classical settings of a broad range of poetry on the concert stage and in recordings for the Pentatone label. Her own poetry has been featured or is forthcoming in American Writers Review, Beyond Words Literary Magazine, Burningword Literary Journal, Cathexis Northwest Press, Drunk Monkeys, Eunoia Review, Lone Mountain Literary Society, Mill Valley Literary Review, Poets Choice, The Pointed Circle, Tangled Locks, Treehouse Literary Review, Viewless Wings, Wild Roof Journal, The Write Launch, and Wingless Dreamer. She has been nominated for a 2023 Pushcart Prize.