Aphelion Issue 292, Volume 28
March 2024
 
Editorial    
Long Fiction and Serials
Short Stories
Flash Fiction
Poetry
Features
Series
Archives
Submission Guidelines
Contact Us
Forum
Flash Writing Challenge
Forum
Dan's Promo Page
   

Star Struck

by Teresa Ann Frazee


Wish I could be
A big hot star
With only one name
Yet all know who you are

I’d have a diverse audience
And know my performance well
I’d be older than my admirers
Not that the naked eye could tell

Would have made nightly appearances
For Jesus and Alexander the Great
From paupers to gold gilded popes
All for the same flat rate

My brilliance would dazzle
Thieves and a destined patron saint
Even old masters could not
Capture my grandeur in paint

Instead I was born
Light-years from home
With a flesh encased heart
And carbon based bone

Descendants of Adam’s rib
The faithful would surely bet
But we are born of the stars
A fact we’re urged to forget

These things I say
For no trivial reason
We are coming of age
In humanities season

Cool breath of night
With it’s primal kiss
Linked to the past
To the life I miss

I look to the stars
Our ancestral guide
Between the sky’s edge
And where infinity divide

Celestial baubles emanate
Like auroral lights
Amid Zodiac clusters
Of cosmic kites

Lure my eyes toward
Light and its shine
To the healing glow
Of those kin of mine

In a bedding of grass
My face toward the night
I slip deep into dreams
Of interstellar flight

Gravity cannot hold
Or keep me grounded
Rising upward to where
Mankind’s roots are founded

To a floating nocturnal world
In the black velvet of space
Where myriads of swirling suns
Dance with systematic grace

Sirius, Mizar and Vega
Took me a far distance away
Showed me the indescribable
Like the core of the Milky Way

Slung the Archer’s arrow
Circled round Orion’s belt
The further from Earth
The more at home I felt

Visited siblings in nurseries
Of newborn stars
Then took an overnight trip
To the suburbs of Mars

Hitched a ride
On an Earthbound meteorite
Felt like traveling
Near the speed of light

In the bedding of grass
I woke at dawn
Till my dreams, once again
Lead where I belong

Everlasting night, accommodates
The contents of my head
Holds the galactic course
That humans seldom tread

I renounce the myths
That I’ve been taught
And reclaim my true heritage
If only in thought


© 2010 Teresa Ann Frazee

A visual artist for over twenty years, with juried and international exhibitions including solo shows in galleries, museums and other venues, receiving many awards and honors. Also, Teresa has been perusing her other love, writing. She is a published poet, including Skyline Magazine, Hudson Review, Poetry Shelter, The Horror Zine, Twice the Terror: The Horror Zine Anthology and Death Head Grin. Inside her world of make believe, she paints and writes what she knows to be true. Bound by the creative force, she leaves reality entirely up to you.

Find more by Teresa Ann Frazee in the Author Index.

Comment on this story in the Aphelion Forum

Return to Aphelion's Index page.