MACS9647-JD
(listen to the poem, read by Diane R. Wiener)
“…the farthest known galaxy from the Earth based on the photometric redshift…equivalent to a light travel distance of 13.26 billion light-years (4 billion parsecs).”
—Wikipedia
The Hubble telescope
can barely decode it,
a flare of heavy pixels:
a Holy Grail to come.
Science gets curiouser.
*
Here, we decompress lives
in the 3-D of our senses
amplifying in our bodies.
Our avatars of reality
inhale and exhale sprites.
*
Centrifuge forces spaceships beyond
centillions of centillions.
The space between our tongues
touching is an entire galaxy,
the tastiest one one-nonillionth.
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Amberlight
(listen to the poem, read by Diane R. Wiener)
In the buzz of morning, we newborns
awaken to find honey awaiting us.
The air surrounding us is hot.
It’s too woozy to dream of anything
but that peculiar scent of her.
It has no name, but we have been born
knowing nothing but her.
She is of us, and we are of her.
We are the nameless hungry.
Our dreams quickly turn to amber
when it’s already our turn to nurse
others only a week or two younger
than us. We get promoted quickly
through castes until we break
free of the comforting honeycomb
into the world, our antennae scanning
the landscape. Our bodies
perennially sing spring.
We gather up bits of nectar
and glue them to the back of our legs.
We helicopter back hive with our loot.
Awash in the sweetest elixir, we breathe
nothing else but her, the sole reason
for our universe. She is the big bang,
the glow-light of our short lives.
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About the Author
Raymond Luczak is the author and editor of 25 titles, including once upon a twin (Gallaudet University Press) and Compassion, Michigan (Modern History Press). His poems have appeared in Poetry, Ploughshares, and elsewhere. An inaugural Zoeglossia Fellow and the editor of the literary journal Mollyhouse, he lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Read Sarah Katz’s review of once upon a twin in this issue of Wordgathering.