Nothing this way

Edited from an original photograph near the Iris Nebula by Géza Kurczveil

Darks West Of Iris

This region is where the light evacuates, moves
off to leave voids where they refuse to touch or
populate amid material that makes up what we call
space and time and beauty in the name of violence.

A chain of absences may construct a rosary from
what is not there, black and ungathered save for
little pools of netherness they make when thrown
against all that irreducible brilliance about them.

If you squint just right, behold shadeprints spelling
something too faint to decipher: “Stay Out” or “I Live
Here” or “Nothing This Way” making nebulous poetry
with titles too faint to matter beyond this amusement.

If you go there, be prepared to stay. You will not need
for there is nothing to want. Adoration is enough. If you
can keep your eyes, they will be the most precious thing
in a universe that holds everything in perfect indifference.

Joseph Gallo
August 4, 2014