Worth Keeping

A heavy heart, leadened
by the weight of pain, hangs
like a folding star within
some misbegotten frame.

Moth-eaten tapestries make
the most ridiculous claims,

“Idiot-weaver, creator, believer,
I am he, and I give you gravity!”

“Why me?”

I ask, ashamed.

It never mattered,
because I am pulling myself
into the emptiest
of empty spaces.

Step-by-step,
as I complete my paces,
this new star chart glints
with a new constellation.

Stitched in threads of gold,
the gold, it gleams,
along the curves
of our faces.

An odd stylistic choice…

to the void, the visages scream –
from the nothing, returned,
is the endless tone,

“eeeeeeeeee”

Yet, Orion has his starry belt,
ol’ Ursa shakes her stinking pelt,
and somewhere a maiden cries
a pearly tributary, teardrops,
that drift along, verily,
and cast their glimmer
into the sticky pitch of night.

…and I
have their company
to keep me…

Judge my worth
by what things I left,
worth keeping.

Otherwise,

I am there in the stars,
dulling, but still gleaming.


© CG Tenpenny, 2021.

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