Poetry: No Stars by Taryn Allan

No Stars

 

Spotlit beneath the street-light

She stands exposed within the sodium glare

Staring at the expressionless bulb as though it were some divine presence

Her wavering mouth a crooked parody of a smile

Like a ridged crescent moon

A curved vessel for the buttery-light to fill

 

Tears stream from her night-blackened eyes

Like wilting stars dripping shimmering dew

From the sky’s once eternal crucible

Just an idea of sadness

 

She seems to stand for an endless moment, transfixed

The senile heart of the world made flesh

Fear, confusion, ecstatic release

At play across the opioid cartography of her face

The collapsing memory of abuse

 

Alone, searching

Confused by the amberous city-glow

Standing still, staring deeper

Beyond the angle of the street-light

Into the smothered dark

Wondering why

Why no stars are left in the lambent-blank sky

Just earth-bound echoes

The music of electric spheres

Humming for the lost sidereal

 

The ambient glow sustains her

For now

Though it is entirely without meaning

Taryn Allan scribbles things into notebooks. Occasionally, those scribblings coalesce and have been known to appear in such places as the Horror Writers Association’s Poetry Showcase, Lycan Valley Press and Horror Sleaze Trash, amongst others.