Star Freckled Sky

Ceiling, Emily Slofstra

you and I were born beneath
the same star freckled sky
and though we’d look the same to someone else
I can’t believe their eyes

I was born to certainty
beneath fluorescent lights
you born to poverty
and pushed up out of strife

I fought for you in all my schoolyard fights
I read your books and tried to bring them life
search for you on the radio ’til my folks turned out the lights
And I think I liked you better when you were dead

I taped all your articles
unfolded to my door
tried to wear my hair like yours
and breathe what you fight for

Scattered my apologies
for what I’ve never done before
across a floor that knows
these footsteps all too well

And though I’ve heard you’re just a human being
the ties that bind are few and far between
a couple human tendencies ‘tween words that changed the world
and I think I liked you better when you were dead

Sweeping up the ashes
and the cognitive debris
start over again before I
Vanish in the leaves

Only to be rounded up
by dreams I cannot see
and with a vicious pride
refuse to heed

Now I’m in a cardigan
I’m waiting for the cold
for the winter wind to wrap me up
and fill my hollow bones

And I can be the midnight snow
as stars that crumble down
being born a thousand times
before they die

Early in the morning as you
walk upon my grave
with flowers in your hand
for one to whom your heart you gave

Please note upon my headstone
the epitaph that says
here lies the inventor
of the idol never born

and though your face is etched into my core
there’s far too many holes for me to board
and in my dying breath I just don’t get it anymore…