Madeleine Frank

Madeleine Frank recently graduated from St. Lawrence University where she served as the poetry editor for the literary magazine, The Laurentian Magazine. She has a degree in geology which also influences her work. Madeleine currently lives in Rochester, New York where she works in scientific writing and college admissions. She has previously published in The Laurentian Magazine and in Driftwood Press.

The Life Cycle of Starlight

Somewhere, at the edge of a galaxy,
The lights are going out.
Someone is pulling the cord
And turning out the stars.

Or maybe the tide,
The unseen gravitational force,
Is smearing the white energy
Across the dark matter window.

Or maybe a man with a ship
Is hopping from one star to another,
Trapping the sparks in kitchen cups
(He’s taking them away for observation).

I can see the stars going out.
The corner of the universe is fading
Like frog tails, climbing with new legs,
Out of this water of black holes
And elemental muck.
This big beast is leaving me
Behind on a pebble
At the bottom of the pond.