as silent and holy as an empty church. a polished row of pews. you, moonin the sky, how do you do it? your one-handed gravityholding still the earth. astral magic trick, you newly christened old god. every family’s forgotten dance is a scar on your surface. memory like a bear trap. worldfodder magnet. wise old sledgehammeronce smashed through our orbit longways. we were just a pie cooling on the galacticwindowsill. now we say Light &mean your face, stretched our whole livesand once reached your shadow. pockmarkedqueen of all ships. all flags. can’t singa note of worship if it doesn’t includea word of pain. the night sky’sopening bell and serene last call, nursing your craters like old wounds nursing your craters like children. your face held high and regalthrough eons of the same steady bruiseand somehow you arrive to us with a bouquetof escape of routes. i have so muchto learn from you, and not just about physics. how long did it take you to learnsuch luminescent confidence? your brilliantbacklit halo, the way you just float and moveeverything, shine your own ligaments to dust. when people say they love each other to the You and back, is it about distanceor about damage? about some man’slonely footprint? and what do we know about damage next to you, anyway? all our blood clots thick with timebut you have no winds to whisperyour name. sometimes the healingdoes not rush through you. prehistoric oceanor otherwise. there are no channelsyou didn’t cut yourself. no way to say Overin the dead space. no one there to hear itbut a silent star. and a billion other stars.————————————–Zachary Goldberg called us from Oakland, CA.SUPPORT US ON PATREON: http://patreon.com/voicemailpoemshttp://voicemailpoems.org/guidelineshttp://facebook.com/voicemailpoemshttp://twitter.com/voicemailpoemshttp://voicemailpoems.org/thepodcast