in parentheses

Matti Bowen is a graduate of Binghamton University, where she studied English and Cinema. A self confessed Knowledge Omnivore, she revels in the richness of human expression found in everything from blog culture, to science fiction, to home improvement television and Melville. She currently lives in the north Hudson Valley with her dog and far too many books.

3:44
for R.N.G.M.

A gold heart would sit too heavy in the chest
    24 karats and no room for blood
Good thing yours is made of starstuff:

Carl Sagan’s fervent whisperings and drag queen glitter
    Equal parts
And breathes like lungs,
Ecstatic sunlight through your veins.

I would send tulips
    Each day to keep company with your windowsill
Or borrow words if I thought they would be enough –
oh Bright Star! The long dead have had more practice at offerings.

I have nothing but a blessing for wonders:
    Comets and first snowfalls, the set of your shoulders –
Luminescent and cupped firefly gentle in my hands.

All these words are too small, too light –
Only if they filled each gap in the universe would they equal my joy,
    When I have been an age alone in the dark
Suddenly waking to find you
    – twin atom so long lost
Come home again.