Ten Billion Stars

I can’t bear to look;
you burn so bright!

Ten billion stars
couldn’t match
the heat I feel tonight.

I am blinded
by your
incandescent light…

if I close my eyes,
will you hold me tight?

Hello?

Why are you so still?

Oh.

You were never here, at all.

Your silhouette
was merely
a human-shaped
hole,
framing a life
I will never know.

Here, I’ll stay.

Here… where nothing ever glows.

©️ 2019.