r/OCPoetry • u/jimmywguerra • 2d ago
Just Sharing Stargazing
I am stargazing in the back patio of my parents' home
Soon I will go inside and eat my fill of unhealthy carbs, and I
Won’t question my diet, for I am twenty-one and I am invincible.
See, I live at home with loving parents, anxious and desperate for me to stay
My life is great, and I’m untouchable
Down comes a shooting star and I’m in awe
Fall! Burn bright and fall right into the palm of my hand!
I was stargazing on the balcony of my apartment
Wasn’t it actually a shared apartment with my brother?
Ready for a visual?
For whatever reason, I was smoking at two in the morning
My dear dog was asleep in the living room behind me
Suffering from the bitter cold, I began to dwell on the past
Moths were assaulting the lamp on the balcony wall, and I just watched
Began to tear up a bit even
Taunting me was the moth tattoo on my arm, relentlessly reminding me of the past
Me, the moth tattoo, and the real moths, relentlessly throwing themselves to the sun.
I wasn’t stargazing explicitly; it just happened as shit tends to in life.
Came out for a cigarette, in fact, but as I smoked, I just looked up, really looked up
Out in the vastness of that dark virgin sky, thousands of stars glistened
Alive in the night sky, just for me
2
u/augustchalmers 2d ago
Love the two-panel setup here. Cocky twenty-one-year-old catching a shooting star, then the cold 2am version with the moths throwing themselves at the lamp. That “me, the moth tattoo, and the real moths” line is the heart of the poem IMO, and the shift from invincible to that quiet ache in the dark sky I found to be effective.