You like it when I whisper your name
during the long nothings
of space
but I have to yell this time.
The thread of our connection
that once transcended
the vacuum
feels like gossamer against
my imagined skin.
Are we old or are we getting there?
Where, where, you ask—
there where the other worlds are
the promised places beyond
the shattered wall of the horizon.
We’ve gone everywhere
and nowhere
our bodies abandoned
to the mental exploration
of the universe.
We’ve touched stars
with hands that can’t feel.
We’ve bathed
in gas and diamond rain
with only the remembrance
of hearts that once could race.
My love, that’s why I must cling
to you, to what we were,
to hourly whisperings,
to figments of warmth,
to nights and days.
Listen, listen, Love.
Don’t you think
we’ve come a long way?
BIO: Anne Carly Abad received the Poet of the Year Award in the 2017 Nick Joaquin Literary Awards. She has also received nominations for the Pushcart Prize and the Rhysling Award. Her work has appeared in Apex, Mythic Delirium, and Strange Horizons, to name a few. She continues to write in between managing her business and taking care of her three-year-old.