Wonder II

God dipped the sky in kerosene
and set it aflame,
the stars effervescent
like champagne
that rosado bottle the neighbors brought back from spain.
everything just like van gogh.
oh
why did the madman’s eyes fix on that revolver
and not on the revolving planets?
on 6 feet of soil
and not on 26 million miles to venus?
his scene, this scene
azure and salmon nuzzling twilight orbs
like a cerebral tourniquet
choking out every tragic thing i ever saw
until i can’t remember that there are holes
in some children’s shoes
or that my father’s mother left on christmas eve.
only
this fire-licked aurora
this ethereal embroidery
this december’s dying dusk.

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Taryn Patricia Murphy
Poet & Student at Hillsdale College

Photography by Khristian Vinca