Inspired by
If there are fewer stars now
than when I was a child,
I can’t say
which are missing,
who was the last to see them.
Is it not a crime
unless we call it a crime?
It is difficult to document
a disappearance,
a boat full of stars
capsized.
Stars lying in the sand
face-down,
wearing small shoes.
Add that to the report:
some of the stars washed up
in small shoes.
This poem was first published in Rise Up Review, reprinted in the New York Times, and made into a short film by Motionpoems. Maggie Smith is the author of the poetry collections Good Bones (Tupelo Press 2017), The Well Speaks of Its Own Poison (Tupelo Press 2015), and Lamp of the Body (Red Hen Press 2005). In 2016 her poem “Good Bones” went viral internationally. You can find out more about her here.
Inspired by
