LEAP

This poem is from Kamilah Aisha Moon, who is based in Atlanta. She captures something vast, something that remains omnipresent: namely that as we walk the world in routine and with familiarity we are in fact, as Carl Sagan once said, "made of star stuff." We are much more than we think.

Exploded Stars

        haunted by
wholeness—
        bright debris sibilant
beneath skin tug-of-warring
        with gravity, we
harvest shine
        from the caves of
mouths & crevices
        of eyes incandescent
as we remember
        the most massive
flares among us,
        detonate inside
each other to hold
        tiny supernovae
in our arms. Crushed
        bodies craving fusion
keep us brimming
        with enough energy
to pass on,
        keep us lit & lying
to ourselves about
        the eventual & sudden
ways we black hole—
        it already happened, it’s happening
anyway, to happen soon,
        scattering all that we think
matters so much now
        for another radiant giant to gather
then fling across galaxies
        again—reconstituted
& scorched clean,
        new turmoil begging
from the inside out
        to burn.