Poetry

Painting a Star

by
Theresa Boyar

Imagine ice cubes dipped
in whiskey. A glass of whiskey
not sipped but splashed

against your throat.
Drink it for the burn
and imagine ice
while your throat smolders.
Think of the word smolder
and work like that,
migraine glow
crushed beneath black ash.
Understand
that it may be nothing more
than a trick of the universe,
burnt-out ghost of a one-time sun,
its last shimmer frozen among the planets.
Try to fathom
that one night, long after you're gone,
it will disappear and leave behind
a broken dipper, a gaping
belt, or Medusa gone
eyeless at last.

Theresa Boyar is a two-time Pushcart nominee whose poems, essays, and short stories have appeared in The Florida Review, Eclectica, The Pedestal, Small Spiral Notebook, The Adirondack Review, Slow Trains, The Paumanok Review, and Rattle. She lives in Helena, Montana.