Creation
Wendy Galgan
for Gerald
There are no stars visible from here.
Just crumbling cornices and pointed brickwork,
and the gray parchment of the midnight sky.
Too much light escapes this city,
too many streetlamps and turn signals,
too many bulbs left burning
to scatter their illumination through steel and glass
and throw a corona between the sky and us.
Let me build a universe here, in this room.
Let every joyous tear be a new-born star.
Let every whisper be a solar breeze.
Let every instance of skin on skin
leave behind the fire and heat of a comet's tail.
Turn away from the window,
away from the moon's distant light.
Trade its cold caress
for the silver strands of my hair
falling through your fingers.
For this pale landscape,
warm and soft to your touch.
Let dawn come when we wish.
Let our well-banked fires wake once again.
Let the darkness lift slowly.
Watch our morning star appear in my eyes.
Wendy Galgan is an Assistant Professor in the English Department at St. Francis College (Brooklyn, NY), where she is the editor of Assisi: An Online Journal of Arts & Letters. Her work has appeared in journals such as The AFCU Journal and California Quarterly, and her essay "Dale Evans: Girlie-Girl with a Six-Gun" appears in Westerns: Paperback Novels and Movies from Hollywood (edited by Paul Varner). She grew up in a small town on the coast of Maine, and has lived in New York since 1985.