Contains Strobe Lighting
by Christian Ward
The boy with an aquarium tank for a skull is replicating the night sky during his sleepwalking: Nebulae throb. The quiet hum of red giants, fat like yolks for intergalactic giants. Galaxies shimmer in silent discos. Joyriders of shooting stars. A handful of planets, innocent as children, are scattered here and there. They float like tadpoles unsure of their purpose in the universe. The boy with an aquarium tank for a skull can’t possibly point to Earth in the diorama. All he knows is the black hole dragging everything down has his mother’s familiar voice, can outdo light and gravity with a click of her fingers, the hard palm of her hand.
Christian Ward is a UK-based writer who can be recently found in Red Ogre Review, Wild Court, Scapegoat Review, Pink Apple Press, The Selkie, Rappahannock Review, South Florida Poetry Journal and Double Speak.