flashquake Poetry

ILLUMINATIONS
by Melanie Faith

I, an open vessel waiting to be filled with the papery stardust
the firmaments were showering, poised
on the uppermost step behind you, whose
arms circled each other in the closed circuit of a physicist,
balancing the tipsy equation of wonderment
with a chemist's calculation of the elements in flame
glittering down the distant fairgrounds in a cosmic
shiver. We were beholding fake fire, but the bated breath
of the summer children arose in the helium heights of night,
and I wished on them as every star, though
they tumbled through my life, amorphous streaks
that shone a booming noise but for a moment,
the rest an echo of sulfur and sound. Reaching for Heaven,
I grasped at reflections in the glass of the library spire,
having yet to learn the certainty of gravity
you knew, that falling is the sole measurement of grace.

Copyright 2003 by Melanie Faith

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