Poem by Jim Culleny

I see your past aura against a black
further distance,
the most distant distance,

I can see by your billowing
halo of expanding gasses
fluffed like God’s pillow
that you are ruled by laws
that also rule terrestrial things

I see the colors of your vast radiant shedding
and realize the force behind that shedding
is a predicate for everything that has blown apart,
comes apart, falls apart, dissipates, uncomplicates,
is broken down, pulled down, unspun—

It’s hard to wrap a mind around
the truth that this is where all things,
every brilliance built and done,
fought and won, are heading,
except in tiny human scope
which mounts a persistent
counterforce of hope