Poem – Galactic Cannibalism (By Fern G. Z. Carr)

Galactic Cannibalism – By Fern G. Z. Carr

Like ninja throwing stars,

galactic spirals slice through

the vacuum that is space;

locked on target, sure of their mission –

an astronomical collision in the making,

a collision of cataclysmic proportions

in three billion years’ time

when stellar clusters cloaked in

halos of dark matter will be flung into

a gravitational battle to the death –

the ultimate clash of the Andromeda Galaxy

and the Milky Way

who will succumb to his nemesis,

devoured by the voracious Andromeda

as she regurgitates the tidal tails of stars

and spews matter throughout the cosmos

in a transformative merger

dubbed galactic cannibalism.

FERN G. Z. CARR is a director of Project Literacy, lawyer, teacher and past president of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. She is a member of and former Poet-in-Residence for the League of Canadian Poets. Carr composes and translates poetry in five languages while currently learning Mandarin Chinese. A 2013 Pushcart Prize nominee, she has been published extensively world-wide from Finland to the Seychelles. In addition to multiple prizes and awards, honours include being cited as a contributor to the Prakalpana Literary Movement in India; her poetry having been taught at West Virginia University and set to music by a Juno-nominated musician; an online feature in The Globe and Mail, Canada’s national newspaper; and her poem, “I Am”, chosen by the Parliamentary Poet Laureate as Poem of the Month for Canada. Carr is thrilled to have one of her poems presently orbiting the planet Mars aboard NASA’S MAVEN spacecraft. www.ferngzcarr.com