(Photo by author.)

CLAUSTROPHOBIC ASTRONAUT

POEM

The format of this poem is important to me, so I put a screenshot first. ✌️

CLAUSTROPHOBIC ASTRONAUT

Will your vapid ocean of worries be in vain?

So many questions you’ll never have the time to answer.

Insistently asking, always asking, asking.

Mission control screams, all is clear, but you don’t hear,

opaque helmet sealed, stippled by hourglass sand, astro

white

and black,

blasted

inside a lonely singularity . . .

You see the vibrant infinity of stars burning — and even

more

dark matter.

Poor, beaten, space cowboy.

Your reflective mask, you’ve worn, relatively, how long?

Airtight, layered, unload this unrequired weight off.

Young male of moons, running nowhere in suffocated