New NASA Visualization Probes the Light-bending Dance of Binary Black Holes —Frances Reddy, NASA, 2021
Shocking New Observation: Merging Black Holes Really Can Emit Light —Ethan Siegel, Forbes, 2020
I want to tell you something
from the hole at the back of my heart,
except I’m not sure I can speak and if I could
what words would come?
The smallest tremor
the slightest breath,
(yours? mine?)
becomes an invitation to curiosity.
99% oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen,
carbon; hydrogen the biggest in us,
that element of uncertainty,
we are 62.9% surprise.
Tenderness tiptoes around this simplest molecule,
past its subatomic particles and into the star culture
as it folds on itself. It doesn’t fade or become smaller,
but folded, you no longer see it.
Like that hole at the back of my heart,
when you close your eyes, colors
wash through and atoms dance in and out.
If you could describe it aloud,
people passing by would fall
down in the street.
Instead, they stroll on sidewalks
and check their reflections in windows
where the light glints.
Kristy Snedden has been a trauma psychotherapist for thirty-plus years. She began writing poetry in June 2020. Her poem “Dementia,” was awarded an Honorable Mention in the 90th Annual Writer’s Digest Writing Competition. Her work appears or is forthcoming in
various journals and anthologies, most recently Snapdragon, Open Minds Quarterly, The Power Of The Pause Anthology, The Examined Life and Anti-Heroin Chic. She is a student at Phillip Schultz’s Writers Studio. She writes to stay alive and connected to this turbulent world. In her free time, she hikes in the Appalachian Mountains near her home or hangs out with her husband listening to their dogs tell tall tales.
