a poem in my pocket

Frank Tassone hosts haibuns at dVerse Poets Pub and pays tribute to Tracy K. Smith’s “Life on Mars” poetry collection.

______________

You left me here, frozen in time on a barren planet. It’s colder in your absence, yet life keeps spinning with no fixed lunar calendar. Grief’s comet cycles round as it crosses into my orbit in ever lengthening, less frequent ellipses. I ponder memorable views as it burns across thin atmosphere.

Now I play the sun in others’ galaxy; these bright planets circle me with their many moons. I smile warmly at them as they pass, holding them in my gravity. I wonder if they realize I’m a slowly dying star; building up sufficient heat to explode brilliantly when the time comes.

universe on fire

venus and mars cross orbits

fresh new stars are birthed