Constellation
Connie Post
There are stars in our veins
ones that have flickered out
seen the end of all moons
fallen under the back side of the
galaxy
there are meteors in the pulse of
the neck
waiting to fall from the body
waiting for a chance to burn a hole in
the villages of hands,
pelvic bones, feet, locked knees
they fall from us like chaos
like words that burn the roofs of
mouths
leave the skin of regret hanging
we drink the cold water, swish
it around our cheeks
as if ice particles know how to
dissolve shame
as if steam will rise from our
mouths
there are days when celestial
bodies tumble – bones crack
everything falls below the etched sky
line
implodes
the serum of generations falls
leaks through a fibrous universe
the blood can no longer return to
the center
the circling of all fluid cease
all the suns of thoughts,
planets, arteries
burn
dissipate
the particles of selves
reabsorbed into a vague chance
of a remembered life
we step off, look back from a
reverent ledge
the orbit slowing, hesitant
we turn away,
step down the brittle
constellation
take a last glimpse
and remember an Indian summer
night sky
stars sprinkling down
and a voice from over your
shoulder
a voice from the village
whispers
“There is a place where the
light bends”
Connie Post is Poet Laureate of Livermore, California. Her work has been published in Kalliope, Comstock Review,
Iodine Poetry Journal, Main
Street Rag, White Pelican Review, Monterey Poetry Review, Carquinez
Poetry Review, Mid West Poetry Review, California Quarterly, Mobius, Hardpan, Song of the San Joaquin and Oberon. Connie
was a finalist in 2007 in the Comstock Review Muriel Craft Bailey Memorial Awards
and in the 2008 Calyx Lois Cranston Memorial Awards.