The Universe is Expanding: I

I once thought
you could know someone,
always,
the way stars feel each other’s gravity
from those careening around the center
to the most far-flung, forlorn
wanderers where the galaxy
dissipates into the deep.

But you
insisted.

We’ll go away now,
tearing
holes in the fabric of space
and rippling forever through time.
I have already lost
your starlight.
Your pull,
shadows of fingers
brushing through my hair,
lingering,
lingering,
lost.

Billions
of stars, and I am

alone.

We’ll go away now,
this is how everyone says
it must be.
Our universe is expanding,
after all,
so what is love really anyway.