Aubade as the Night Before You Leave

after Tarfia Faizullah

we watch
                                 meteors shower above the park.
                                 we sit on the swings and cling to
childhood mangling into
                                 rusted chains that flake our palms
                                 with iron: a promise of
decay, among meteors—
                                 metal, rock, ice, leashing sky to earth.
light show as collapse, as
                                 shooting stars streak through your eyes
                                 and you tell me your version of
apocalypse:
                                 supernova, explosive eclipse. moon
                                 bloating the sky and tucking us under tide,
every edge ablaze and
                                 earth knocking itself open—
                                 the city its bruised fist.
undone.
                                 i push off and swing. leaving you-
                                 r explosions simmering below,
i survey the gold of
                                 each apartment window haloing home.
                                 meteors hurtle on the edges of
our atmosphere—
                                 your irises—and i can almost hear
                                 the buildings howl:
how empty,
                                 how airless this city will be.

Stella Lei's work is published or forthcoming in Four Way Review, Okay Donkey Magazine, trampset, and elsewhere. She is an Editor in Chief for The Augment Review, she has two cats, and she tweets @stellalei04. You can find more of her work at stellaleiwrites.weebly.com.