CELESTIAL LONGING

He reached for the stars
and found the galaxy
of his mother's milk,
waited for the sucking fire
to turn into a hunger
he could chart
among her cries.

He asked for the heavens
and met the limestone walls
instead, glowed in the canyons
like a lost comet rearranging
the story of the planet.

He reached for the stars
and raged at the darkness
outshining the light,
dismissed the abandoned
continent of his birth

as the landscape of his
father's enormous forehead,
the wrinkled skin sweating
as the old man reached
down and took his wife again.

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