Ruben Quesada
Lament
After Aivazovsky
This star has been dying, God.
And if ancient seahorses and whales
could flee, they would surge into the empty sky.
Watch their tails trail into the distant future like lonely comets
their dying light haunting the darkness,
where anything is possible.
Do not be angry with us. Let us resist the painful weight
of death, the worthless ghost of this daily life.
Ruben Quesada is editor of Queen Mob’s Tea House and a freelance developmental editor. He is the author of Next Extinct Mammal (Greenhouse Review Press, 2011) and Exiled from the Throne of Night: Selected Translations of Luis Cernuda (Aureole Press, 2008). His writing and digital media appear in numerous journals and anthologies. Find more at rubenquesada.com.
This poem appeared in Miramar.