Page 30 - Horizon 17-18

Horizon 2017
30
In the blink of an eye.
And the adventurer’s collection only grew:
Photos of planets, stars, galaxies,
The largest black hole in the universe;
Simple rocks from the dusty surface of long forgotten worlds; And the twinkling of ice coating one thousand wistful smiles.
Each artifact, traveling millions of miles, billions of miles across the universe To reach one man.
One prince of the stars who relished
In the interstellar journey of his beloved.
For he was with her through each solar storm,
Each tranquil evening staring out at the expansive nothingness, Each moment the meteor showers rained down
From her eyes, onto her pillow, pleading for his recovery.
And he did recover,
Slowly but surely the dying planet breathed life back into itself. With each image, each beautiful laugh,
The black hole grew smaller inside his chest.
The sun watched the galaxies grow clouded by tears, The dark freckles obscured by emotion.
The sun watched
As the prince grew stronger with each glimpse into the future, In the hopes that one day he could join his adventurer for real. And she drew delight from the brightening of the far off star. As the glow in his eyes grew lighter and lighter.
Rich communication tethering their hearts together.
Until one day, it just... Stopped.
Day 12 - Overslept
There once was a girl from the ‘Ville. Who went to a school up the hill. Her mom made a fuss,
When she missed the bus,
Now she’s paying her mom’s gas bill.
Day 13 - Celestial Spirits
The silence of space ate away at her spirit,
Just like the silence of the tablet in her hand.
That girl with constellations on her face,
And helium in her chest...
Not light. More like the crushing density of Jupiter’s atmosphere. That girl who spent ages finding every reason
To let her realist romanticize,
And let her prince adventure.
Now she stood clutching a railing, as she had ages ago.
A different railing in a far off galaxy,
But it might as well have been the same.
Except, this time she was not brave enough to lean over it. Tablet in hand. A feeble push of a button.
Snap. Click.
The camera was facing her again. Memories. Stars trudging across the skin
Where rosy gas giants once gleamed. Pulsars fixed with confusion
At the figure in the photo.
The tablet tumbled out of her hands and into the abyss beyond the banister.
A supernova exploded across her face,
As she turned to be greeted by the prince of the stars Bearing full moons upon his face,
And one of Saturn’s rings in the palm of his hand. That boy who spent ages finding every reason
To let his adventurer reign,
And let his romantic feel real.
That boy who had traveled across the entire universe to find her, To be with her again.
Even though the twin stars twinkled far apart for eons,
Their light shone as one to the naked eye
While they danced together on that moon.
Their bodies had been battered, minds tried,
Souls and hearts shredded to the dust that made up the cosmos, But they had written their names in the stars.
And although her collection had been lost over the edge,
He promised they would make a new one
Together.
Day 14 - Celestial: Addendum
The sun’s bright face,
Partially obscured by the starry blanket of the night, Peered out from the safety of his shelter, Wondering what happened next.
The story was incomplete, surely.
A gentle hand through his hair,
A face laughing quietly, the comets shaking subtly from side to side on the dark expression.
They collected everything, but there was always more.
Their explorations led them to places unimaginable,
Beautiful anomalies in the depths of space.
Tragedies occurred, but the sun rose to chase them away.
The sun. Their greatest treasure
Who blinked the sleepy stars from his eyes,
Satisfied with the story.
The romantic pulled the blanket of the sky over her sun, While the realist dozed peacefully at his side.