Astrometric Love

Astrometric Love by Ian Li

20 lines
Issue 6 (Fall 2024)

They see only my shining face,
thinking I’m a lone pioneer
carrying a beacon into a dark universe.

But don’t they know?
Even stars can’t make it alone,

for we entangle ourselves in binary pairs
to journey through emptiness together.

Because although your light may not pierce the skies,
not all stars need to twinkle.

I wish they could see you
as I see you—

how I curl into you,
feel the anchoring of your steady gravity,

how time has gathered my love
into an accretion disk that enfolds you,

how you lead me on a foxtrot tour of the galaxy,
wandering past pulsars and through nebulae fields.

And in this dizzying orbit we trace,
I’m perpetually falling
but you’re always there
to pull me back.