A Bittersweet Comet

organic are these star crescent
metrics, like a halo into a hereafter
or revelation of past lives, they
survived time as a flesh chameleon –

on earth they are roses first,
stems walk through desolation past
stark forests and swamps where
fires on the water still clarify

a constellation in silvery mist –
the roses are mostly quiet…
if you listen they illume secrets.
nostalgia and want are watered

in stone pots set in a sunspot –
on the porch an embryo stares
from the edge of an ocular,
beyond the property’s locked gate

a mute wound ticks and listens.
liberty seems a kind dream,
at most an uncertainty in hope -
a bittersweet comet shrinks

across its sizzling sky orbit –
it fades among the music
to nothing at all, the pulsar
radiates below in shadows.

Holly R. Appling lives in Canada. Her poems have appeared in various print and online journals. More of her writing is at www.hollyappling.wordpress.com.

Find more by Holly R. Appling in the Author Index.

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