Your eyes were stars

Illuminating my night sky,

And I, selfishly,

Was content in

Admiring their beauty while

Never truly understanding

What they burned for

So many light-years away.

I stared at the constellation they formed

Night after night

Confused and afraid of

Everything I didn’t know.

Yet,

Their gravity pulled at me,

Drawing me in,

Inviting me to face my fear

And learn more about

You.

But I didn’t have the strength

To overcome myself,

And the shimmering light

Waned in my ignorance.

So,

Far too late,

I built a telescope

And scoured the sky for answers

To questions I didn’t know.

I learned many things

In my constant search,

But not enough

To fully understand you.

Though, two unequivocal truths

I found in the nothingness

Between the stars

Lingered in my mind.

Firstly,

Our perpetually expanding universe

Forever drifts apart,

Every planet, galaxy, and star

Fading further away,

Strangers passing at the intersection

Of space and time.

More importantly,

The light we see from

A celestial body burning

Eons away

Is nothing more than

The afterimage of

The star it once was,

Fleeting embers flickering

In a futile effort to escape

Eternal darkness.

I thought of

The stars you showed me,

Those I so deeply admired,

Those I only just now began

To understand.

I adjusted my telescope

And looked through

The tunneled lens

With a new perspective,

But the beautiful stars

That once graced me

With fantastic colors and

Burning passion

Vanished from my night sky,

Leaving behind

Only the last faint fumes

Of two breathtakingly beautiful

Burnt-out supernovas.