Sunday, April 1 marked the start of National Poetry Month, an annual celebration the Academy of American Poets first introduced in 1996, according to poets.org. To commemorate National Poetry Month, the largest literary celebration in the world, the King Street Chronicle will publish one poem each school day throughout April.
Color of Ten Thousand Miles
Emily Coster ’18
Gold,
the color of ten thousand miles,
burns holes in the tide.
If I reached through the arc of a gentle trough –
the meniscus mirroring the atmosphere –
would I emerge with a fraction of the sun?
Stardust from supernovas sprinkles the vacuum
like crumbs.
I think if I had watched a star die,
I’d know why the ocean doesn’t hold its ashes.
But I can see the color of ten thousand miles
in its luminous youth
clearer than a bullet hole –
transcending the gaseous confines of the sky,
of the kaleidoscope sea,
of the pupil of my eye,
seemingly simmering through eternity.
Yet if I charred my fingertips reaching high,
through ten thousand miles of vacuum and stardust,
I couldn’t hold the gold I had sought to find.
And if I plunge my palms beneath the waves,
through bullet holes from ten thousand miles,
I’d emerge with stones trampled by soles,
seaweed tangled between toes –
not even stardust, the ashes of gold –
just
a pebble
bigger than a bullet.
– Mae Harkins, Staff Writer
Featured Image by Mae Harkins ’20