Looking for Comet Hyakutake

Nine million miles is nothing
to a star, to any bright body
tethered or loose in the night sky.
The man who first spotted this comet
is as common as the rest of us,
not a scientist but simply someone in love
with the dark and the complicated
patterns we can find in it.
The comet a brilliant flaw
in the pattern. We step outside
the Teacup Lounge with the blues
still humming in our heads and the gin
biting our tongues but no longer bitter.
Where to start? The overturned
bowl of the Dipper, then down
its crooked handle to the unfamiliar
prick and blur of light, as if a child
had drawn a star and deliberately
smudged it. Beautiful thumbprint.
We shield our eyes from street lights
to stare at the luminous
spit of cosmic ice. Whatever the distance,
for beauty, for love, we will cross it.

 

Poems by Melody Lacina: