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Star Stammer

Tycho’s star     star of Bethlehem
the red giants      the blue
(that person that gets there
would slow          would
balance
          poise indefinitely
go real, perhaps
               the only
ontological proof
green as a garden at last
dumb as a fish in its pools
orange finned arms
spread

luminosities          long-period variable
Mirid
     (that total alpha
bet we tumble to
beryllium 8 perhaps
the most unstable
but in supernova
the core of the star throws out
carbon     oxygen     calcium
                              (going real
no longer an equation for myself
what the blood would have done
go real
          by my calculation

the neutron star hammered into heaven
the pulsar that exudes
not light
          but nebulae
(if only we were the first to get there
Cygnus     Cygnus     (signification
when the rest of the expedition
fell into it
          they didn’t