<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" class=""><div dir="auto" class=""><div class=""><span style="caret-color: rgb(85, 85, 85);" class="">Dead Stars</span></div><div class=""><span style="caret-color: rgb(85, 85, 85);" class=""><br class=""></span></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 25px; line-height: 1.65; caret-color: rgb(85, 85, 85);" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">Out here, there’s a bowing even the trees are doing. </span><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""></span><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""> Winter’s icy hand at the back of all of us. </span><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""></span><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">Black bark, slick yellow leaves, a kind of stillness that feels </span><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""></span><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">so mute it’s almost in another year. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 25px; line-height: 1.65; caret-color: rgb(85, 85, 85);" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">I am a hearth of spiders these days: a nest of trying. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 25px; line-height: 1.65; caret-color: rgb(85, 85, 85);" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">We point out the stars that make Orion as we take out </span><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""></span><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""> the trash, the rolling containers a song of suburban thunder. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 25px; line-height: 1.65; caret-color: rgb(85, 85, 85);" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">It’s almost romantic as we adjust the waxy blue </span><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""></span><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""> recycling bin until you say, </span><i style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">Man, we should really learn </i><i style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""></i><i style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">some new constellations.</i></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 25px; line-height: 1.65; caret-color: rgb(85, 85, 85);" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">And it’s true. We keep forgetting about Antlia, Centaurus, </span><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""></span><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""> Draco, Lacerta, Hydra, Lyra, Lynx. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 25px; line-height: 1.65; caret-color: rgb(85, 85, 85);" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">But mostly we’re forgetting we’re dead stars too, my mouth is full </span><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""></span><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""> of dust and I wish to reclaim the rising— </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 25px; line-height: 1.65; caret-color: rgb(85, 85, 85);" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">to lean in the spotlight of streetlight with you, toward </span><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""></span><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""> what’s larger within us, toward how we were born. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 25px; line-height: 1.65; caret-color: rgb(85, 85, 85);" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">Look, we are not unspectacular things. </span><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""></span><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""> We’ve come this far, survived this much. What </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 25px; line-height: 1.65; caret-color: rgb(85, 85, 85);" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">would happen if we decided to survive more? To love harder? </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 25px; line-height: 1.65; caret-color: rgb(85, 85, 85);" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">What if we stood up with our synapses and flesh and said, </span><i style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">No. </i><i style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""></i><i style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""> No,</i><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""> to the rising tides. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 25px; line-height: 1.65; caret-color: rgb(85, 85, 85);" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">Stood for the many mute mouths of the sea, of the land?</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 25px; line-height: 1.65; caret-color: rgb(85, 85, 85);" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">What would happen if we used our bodies to bargain </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 25px; line-height: 1.65; caret-color: rgb(85, 85, 85);" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">for the safety of others, for earth,</span><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""></span><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""> if we declared a clean night, if we stopped being terrified, </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 25px; line-height: 1.65; caret-color: rgb(85, 85, 85);" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">if we launched our demands into the sky, made ourselves so big </span><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""></span><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">people could point to us with the arrows they make in their minds, </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 25px; line-height: 1.65; caret-color: rgb(85, 85, 85);" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">rolling their trash bins out, after all of this is over?</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 25px; line-height: 1.65; caret-color: rgb(85, 85, 85);" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""> </span>- Ada Limón</p><br class=""><div dir="ltr" class=""><br class=""><!-- signature close --></div></div></body></html>