Star Strider
by Tricia Wagner

A tribute to New Horizons and the dawning of Pluto on the eyes of humankind

North of nowhere,

stars advance,

firestorms of other worlds,

they rage,

and we are lost in them.

Starsong shivers from invisible peaks,

capped with coal clouds

obliterated in the black belly of an absent sun.

Rafters holding starborn choruses and bells

are grazed by the golden notice of snowy owls,

touched just by wingtips,

soaring,

lost in the wilds of flying through the winds of many suns.

Star wings shade your reddened cheeks with blue,

weaken knees that bend to touch the arc of the Earth

in exaltation.

An angel flies; a star,

and you are lost.

Disintegration.

Time and motion sweep memories from your soul

and take away the sky.

A moment of clarity.

A rising round of ice and dust,

and you are found,

someplace.

Kneeling in the…