You’ve heard the story of Atlas, condemned to hold up the sky for eternity? Metaphors ring true. Undeterred: we craved relief and found it only in time and light.

light from a shattering shell
to be held between shards of refracting light
inhaling echoes
empty space and molecular wind
melting time - aether thins
see me separate into a trillion living cells
in each one a galaxy
where a million lives were woven
and in all - stillness - a dream.
to stretch a thread between two stars
and hear it fray and tear
for a hundred lightyears, for one second
seeing through a single carbon flare
a fleck of dust rises from a shattering shell
a cosmos within a cosmos within a cosmos… your infinity
finally rising from the darkest well
exploding into sparks