by Alice Campbell Romano
Years ago I bought you a star.
The framed certificate turns up
now and then
when I sift a desk, weed a bookshelf.
An undistinguished star
somewhere
with your name.
You would better have appreciated
my renaming Mars for you,
red combatant.
Earth registers stars
from Earth’s point of view,
assigns coordinates,
sells naming rights.
Maybe only Earth has this compulsion
to brand the infinite.
Our ambition sends craft
to search out life
on Jupiter’s moon Europa.
We shall leave Earth’s mark—
in—be astonished—
The framed certificate turns up
now and then
when I sift a desk, weed a bookshelf.
An undistinguished star
somewhere
with your name.
You would better have appreciated
my renaming Mars for you,
red combatant.
Earth registers stars
from Earth’s point of view,
assigns coordinates,
sells naming rights.
Maybe only Earth has this compulsion
to brand the infinite.
Our ambition sends craft
to search out life
on Jupiter’s moon Europa.
We shall leave Earth’s mark—
in—be astonished—
a poem
about Earth. Poets ache.
I am tempted without reason
to piggyback, to add me,
on a microchip
to Europa.
You didn’t care when I bought you
a star. I will escape for a billion miles,
to the edge of the infinite, in my
name alone.
about Earth. Poets ache.
I am tempted without reason
to piggyback, to add me,
on a microchip
to Europa.
You didn’t care when I bought you
a star. I will escape for a billion miles,
to the edge of the infinite, in my
name alone.
Alice Campbell Romano lived a dozen years in Italy where she adapted Italian movie scripts into English, married a dashing Italian movie-maker, made children, and moved with the family to the U.S., where they built, she wrote, and the children grew. Her poems have appeared in—among other venues—Prometheus Dreaming, Persimmon Tree, Pink Panther Magazine, Orchards Poetry, New Croton Review; Beyond Words, Writing in a Woman's Voice, Quartet Journal, Instant Noodles Devil's Press, Moon Shadow Sanctuary Press. In January, she was awarded HONORABLE MENTION in The Comstock Review's 2022 Chapbook contest, "...not an award that we give every year, but an honor set aside for a few manuscripts." Alice swooned.