Writing

I exist in the middle of the universe

Created in fall 2023 for ENGL 207 (Intermediate Poetry Writing)

I exist in the middle of the universe

It has no bounds, no ground, it just goes and goes

Forever in every direction

And scattered within its pure unending black are twinkling specks.

Some are close enough to grasp, so I do.

I reach out and grab a small one;

For a moment I feel its essence—

Smooth warmth that cloaks my cheeks and chest.

One appears beside me sharply pulsating

So I let go of the first and catch this;

For an instant I feel it too—

Quick pricks tickling from my fingers to my elbows.

One hovers by my ear so I capture it,

Absorbing its whispering chill into my nose and toes.

Two more appear, and as I reach for the brightest of them, suddenly

There are three, and they’re floating and bobbing and drifting around me.

Then there are four, and now their energies emanate without my contact and

Then there’s five, then six, and I can’t keep track which energy derives from which and

Then another, and another, and they’re whizzing and whirling and whisking and swirling.

I feel each’s energy ephemerally before another appears and before I can make sense of it

There’s another and before I can make sense of how it’s made me feel there’s another and

There are more sparks than dark now and as each one emits I lose a part of myself in it and 

I know I’m in the middle of the universe but I’m sure I’m drowning I’m suffocating I’m crying

I’m dying and this infinity is now so small that it’s become walls and I hardly exist at all and

Without this universe I am nothing but within this universe

I am nothing.