*first published by Cathexis Northwest Press, April 2022
I borrowed your pain and
the pills they sent
to subdue the orbit of
impotence
until gravity softened,
releasing the mass
of our bodies
untethered.
When your atoms dispersed
my reflection fled,
the refraction of light
caught in a chasm,
a stylus trapped in a
hollowed groove
the turntable purling,
purposeless.
Now I sing to fill the
negative space,
to find myself
in the absence of form,
my farraginous face
a Rubin’s vase,
matter
seeking countenance.
My nucleonic notes
collide,
composed of
incandescent hydrogen,
my hot core the
cadence of fusion,
rising in coruscant
crescendo.
I am Helios
driving my chariot
to horizon’s edge,
my flaming horses
unbridled,
not knowing myself
until across the vast abyss
Aristarchus named me sun.
Lisa Delan’s poetry has been featured in a broad range of literary publications, and she has received a Pushcart Prize nomination. Her poems have been set to music by several prominent composers (with premieres in 2022 and 2024), and she is currently collaborating on a new choral work as well as a song cycle. When she is not writing, you can find the soprano, an international performer who records for the Pentatone label, singing songs on texts by some of her favorite poets.
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