Letter to the Northern Lights by Aimee Nezhukumatathil
The light here on earth keeps us plenty busy: a fire
in central Pennsylvania still burns bright since 1962.
Whole squads of tiny squid blaze up the coast of Japan
before sunrise. Of course you didn’t show when we went
searching for you, but we found other lights: firefly,
strawberry moon, a tiny catch of it in each other’s teeth.
Someone who saw you said they laid down
in the middle of the road and took you all in,
and I’m guessing you’re used to that—people falling
over themselves to catch a glimpse of you
and your weird mint-glow shushing itself over the lake.
Aurora, I’d rather stay indoors with him—even if it meant
a rickety hotel and its wood paneling, golf carpeting
in the bathrooms, and grainy soapcakes. Instead
of waiting until just the right hour of the shortest
blue-night of the year when you finally felt moved
enough to collide your gas particles with sun particles—
I’d rather share sunrise with him and loon call
over the lake with him, the slap of shoreline threaded
through screen windows with him. My heart
slams in my chest, against my shirt—it’s a kind
of kindling you’d never be able to light on your own.
Art by Jeffrey K.Bedrick
Recommended listening: Seu Jorge - The Life Aquatic Studio Sessions (Full Album) (This is an album by Brazilian musician Seu Jorge. It is a collection of David Bowie songs (plus one original, "Team Zissou") Jorge recorded in Portuguese for the soundtrack to the film The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.)
Debashish Bhattacharya: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert
Links of the Day: The Strokes Crack 3.0 Stephen Hawking's Pocket Universe Photo series: Into the Darkness by Cyril Kuhn Searching for sound with Yosi Horikawa