Andromeda
Already the countdown has begun:
four billion years before Andromeda
collides with the Milky Way, rupturing
forever that footpath through the forest
of dreamers’ jewels. I would scoff,
if I did not recall the tracery of fine hairs
swirled across an infant’s skull
like the softest of inbound galaxies.
Andromeda, all your starry wonders
cannot salve the ache of baby teeth
chanced upon, this 2 A.M.,
at the bottom of a bedside drawer.
.
by Campbell McGrath
from Nouns & Verbs
Harper Collins, 2019