MERCURITA ❋ Margaryta Golovchenko

i sleep in a watery Saturn

a memory of a past the world neglected

to remember. You, on the other hand, knew of it

since birth

amassing gilded frames & glass terrariums

to help me settle in. You asked

if i will sing lullabies at night while living

at your bedside —

i blushed, not sure how to explain

suffocation was a sign of divinity back home,

a conscious choice to return to the basics.

You said they need me here

to dream in goldfish hue, knowing their wishes

are safely candy-wrapped and orbiting

around a nucleus of crystalized constituents.

[Course: to the nearest atom]