Sliding Down The Cosmos

An adult view of the Universe through the child's eye

I played with pinwheels 

and fireworks, and drank 

lots of shaken pop, 

ran shoeless around  

swimming pools, shouting, 

"Man, look out for sharks!"

I had some killer kaliedascopes, 

and ate overly sugared cereals,

the toys that we glued,

and our crude crayon runes 

covered our handmade time capsules 

with our heiroglyphic sooth.

We buried them in the backyard 

during summer afternoons. 

I grew up but still remember

when a sword of merely wood,  

and those boys with water guns 

who threw the very large balloons, 

would miraculously win wars

inside the worlds they meant to rule.

Donning towel around my throat, 

galavanting galactic wormholes,

I was Superman, in safety pins,

sporting big ladybug rainboots.

Truth be told, I wasn't bold. 

I was Hades, Pluto, in my youth. 

Abandoned, and adopted, and 

avoided, and assaulted,

I galloped across the star ways 

like a Northern bred Cayuse.

That night was just the right color of 

opaque obsidian, 

I was an underaged astronaut just

orbiting oblivion...  

My precious adolescence 

jettisoned the instant

my parents prematurely 

left me in this solar system.

I spent centuries after that 

since latched behind a hatch

hermetically clasped I sat 

inside that sealed room, 

where not even our sun's set 

in all of it's radiant solitude.  

My survival universal, I did 

what I could.   

Like blackholes, my lies finally 

filled my vacuum.

My capsule, my soul, began spiraling 

out of control  

Uncomfortably alone I was now 

completely out of place 

Infinitely set apart 

from our sour, outer space 

My youth was silence and

space time and supernovas

and frozen foods and light

years of cruelty, I'd since

grown tired of the view,

my isolation, my lies, 

and decided it high time

I returned to the blue...

If our son ever feels this,

I mean, ever, even once,

I'll cradle his little waist 

like the milky way does us. 

I'll take him into my strong,

calm, and ever expanding arms 

and say, son, look out 

at the stars up above us,

if you ever feel lonely just

know where you're from

you belong to the star ways

and will always be loved.   

Reviews

[jacob erin-cilberto]

really like this journey...abstract but concrete at the same time...some of us grow up way too fast because of circumstances and thus never have that "youth"---it is something we can only imagine....but then some of us older folks look at the world today, and long so much to be back in our youth...we have such fond memories of those illusions of the world.

[Taylor]

Beautiful flow and original images -- I moved along, hanging on each word and sliding smoothly into the next line. It made me smile in parts and reminisce about youth. I love the use of the word "jettisoned." That seems to be a very apt description of how we leave adolescent. As I've said to you before, I'm not qualified to evaluation poetry, but as a reader, I can say that I like this a lot. It is one to savor.

[paulina misiewicz]

I've read it before today and thought i have left the rewiev but i haven't lol so here it is...lovely poem! Love the wording, metaphors and the whole picture you've painted! You will.never be the ordinary grown up if you can write like this, think like this, feel like this! Beautiful stuff!

[Leif]

The trauma of youth does have a way of making you feel like a alien creature in an unfamiliar land, while everyone else is out there, somewhere so far out of touch. That debris follows our orbits forever. Even as an adult, that junk still spins around in our heads.

A unique and interesting look at childhood. Well done and thank you for sharing.

[Tomoe Tellez]

"I was Pluto in my youth.
I was abandoned,
and adopted,
and avoided,
and abused."
I especially like this part, it's so true, and also all the different ways you compared the wonders of outer space with life.

[Joshua Carl Cruz]

killer. appreciate the words. off topic someone named faith is asking that i send her an email. do people try to steal your passwords or some s**t here?

[Tomoe Tellez]

First, where did she ask you, did she send you an email asking for it?

[Joshua Carl Cruz]

she sent me a message from here, she is on here but no poems or friends however it says im new in her window. The message was like, I love your stuff Id like to be friends can you send me an email to my address(which she gave) and so on then saying I have something important to tell you... Sounds fishy, right?

[Tomoe Tellez]

Well, I don't think she can steal anything, send her a message through here for safety.

[Joshua Carl Cruz]

i just feel like as a guy this is how we get our s**t messed with.

[Tomoe Tellez]

Yeah, I understand what you mean.

[jeannemarie coulter]

enjoyed the flow of images...this is well and carefully penned...thank you

[Joshua Carl Cruz]

it's a creative piece of confusion. i couldn't figure out how to juxtapose the feeling of being young against my own experiences, as told through astronomic metaphors. swing and a miss