OTHERWISE, UNKNOWING
in 1908 a piece of a comet hit the earth
no one saw it approach, a small point
of light lost in the glare of the morning sun
consider the Tunguska
event, a drifting, spans
of solar systems & icebergs,
oceans of atmosphere over
eyes searching for warnings
for bluish sparks, the panic
of unattended belongings
& voicelessness, self-destructing
comets as radiant as a childhood
hanging in the sky, adultified
in fury & stripped of branches,
as if the first time I studied myself
was on the pearl of bathroom tiles,
skin & skin, kissing teeth to fill
voids of plot & motions of learning
to read, ignoring the violence
of impersonation & moons
on television screens beneath
the heavens & above deleted
recordings, before streams
of dust are haloed & mirrored
against physical evidence, sweeping
narrow staircases trying to orbit
the sun, maybe I’ve been spat out
by Jupiter every night in the caravans
of conception, the rockiness of expression
& recorded events, slept on possessively
Autumn Royal is a poet and PhD candidate in Creative Writing at Deakin University, Australia. Autumn’s writing has appeared in publications such as Cordite Poetry Review, Rabbit Poetry Journal, Mascara Literary Review and TEXT Journal.