Milky Way

By Joergen Ostensen

9.3.19

The milky way fills the sky

From end to end

As ten thousand stars shine on

Seen in the orchard

Where the fawns run free

Jousting with velvet antlers

Pausing in the constellatory brilliance

To sink their teeth into apples

Their hooves damp in the dewy grass.

Milky way that disappears in the sunshine

Milky way choked and severed from consciousness

By the city, the soul blinding neon presence

Where reality and the unobtainable prisons

That seem so unlikely to stand

Under the stars with the dew and the fawns

But are as strong as the recidivistic pain that lingers

Pain impossible to escape in the memories

The labyrinth of the streets, the avenues,

The men and women begging for change

As a man prepares his defense against a machine too brutal

To imagine

Here in the rainy day melancholy

Where the tragic truths appear

Over and over

And the two million remain in the darkness

A starless darkness

And one of them a Red Fawn

Who the bars and the guns prevent from eating the apples

Beneath the stars that sadly seem to be disappearing

Here in the city where the milky way memories

Just seem so far away.

Milky way that never really is never not just above us

Milky way, the network of the beautiful memories

Written in the sky above us

That can be remembered

In the hope embraces

Between friends long separated

The poem taped to the wall

In the coincidental subway station smiles

The breathless phone calls

The sunshine beaches where they serve Italian ice

Conjuring a memory of a winter boardwalk banana.

Milky way that is always there

Always, always, always, always

Shining on through the pain

Holding our love in our hearts

In the hope dream of memory

The past memories of the darkness and the fawns

Realized in the moment

As the wise women's face seems like it will split

From the power of her surprise smile

As she she holds onto a lock of my tangled hair

After so long

Realizing the hope of love now

And even though the sun is shining

Even though the city teams around us

Even though the pain is still there

There is hope in the present

In the love

There is hope in her smile

A smile that shines like ten thousand stars

A smile that fills the sky from end to end.