Poetry by Miles Varana ½ Comic Art by Emiliano Zingale
As a child you watched
your parents’ stars climb
the domed basilica of night,
then bred the path of your own
through the foggy chill of
your bedroom window.
As a youth you shot out
like an Ottoman cannonball
to shatter the marble heads
of the Saints, shrieking
through the dark until unexpectedly
your plasma cooled, and
brighter stars prevailed.
Now you are old and the time
comes for you to make your first
choice. Choose either to join
the once hated martyrs in their eternal
inertia, chanting:
Kids these days!
In a chorus that fills the deep void
of space, or put on your constellation
necklace and lay down in
the low dirt to die.
Miles Varana’s work has appeared in a variety of publications, most recently SOFTBLOW, After the Pause, Chicago Literati, Yellow Chair Review, and Clear Poetry. He has worked previously as a staff reader and managing editor at Hawai’i Pacific Review. Miles lives in Madison, Wisconsin, where he enjoys rainy days, naps, and copious amounts of sushi.
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