MICHAEL KAGAN

Forever

Grandpa spent forty years
Staring
Lyra
Cygnus
Draco
Pisces
Forty years
Dreaming
Leo, Cancer, Aries, Cassiopea
Forty years
Working
Ursa Major Ursa Minor
Gemini
The Magical Three of the Hunter, of Pyramid Correlation, of Stonehenge, of Hopi Mounds and Lunar Mansions, of speculation and myth, hope and belief, the Magical Three of the Hunter
Orion
Grandpa started early
And the Astronaut’s earliest memories are of the stars and the sky, blackness, infinity
They would walk
Hand-in-hand
On nights when the moon was gone
And the only light
Came from
Forever
Out the door
Across the lawn
Through an empty forest of towering green
An ocean of still reeds
A hard smooth polished white concrete road
Rarely used
This barren road
Symbols appearing
Signs
Warnings
Gates that they climb
Hand-in-hand
Until they arrived
A giant circle
Burned
Covered in fuel stains
Deep marks repaired, caused by falling debris
Launch Pad
A taking-off place
Conduit to the eternal
Site to seek the vast unknown
They would lie in the middle
Without words
Holding hands
No Moon
Staring
An hour two three or four
Staring
The tingling bright of whatever you believe
God
The Big Bang
A simulation
It didn’t matter how or what or who
It was there
Space
They were there
Billions
And billions
Billions and billions more
Tingling
Bright
Forever away and eternal
The stars our stars their stars who knows whose
Stars
Where they are might or
What might be
Among them

Press release courtesy Almine Rech. Text: James Frey.