The Space Between Our Planets

We meet on a ship in space
Hovering
Floating
Waxing and waning
Silence was speaking in the atmosphere.
My eyes found yours and waited in the lonesomeness,
Searching within the sparks.
At that moment, within the vacuum of space and dust,
We landed on Mars.

I saw fields of flowers for miles.
Smelled honey, citrus, and fresh clay from a river.
But most of all, I saw light from a distant star touch your silhouette. Hand in hand, we shared a kiss, and then faded into the fresh rose petals. Hovering
Floating
Waxing and waning
Into the sweetest parts of the planet.

There were suicides on Venus.
It was my first time seeing it in person.
I could taste the mustard fog that surrounded every living and non-living entity. I kept watching, one after another,
Lovers, dancing and laughing and crying and spinning.
Until one of them would notice how the other moved.
Their spins were not quite in rhythm.
On Venus, there was only a stage,
A play where any two people could pretend to be the eye of the universe. “You are mine,” one said.
“I am yours,” said the other.
Like a prophecy unfolding, one was proved to be wrong.
A heart traded for a black hole that could pull everything into an endless emptiness.
All lovers died on Venus.
I never thought it would be my turn.

I now live on the edge of time.
Neptune,
where all loud things are diminished.
Lions become flies and great oaks turn into dandelions.
Every thought becomes a translucent reality in its open valley. I could have waited for you, but my eyes had dried
and my heart had finally come to
a resting beat.
I saw every reality.
“I love you,” I heard from the north.
I followed your voice and found an apparition of you. Only, you were taller.
Your eyes, too symmetrical.
Your fingertips, too short.
Then you spoke:

“You’re actually very good at being quiet company, waiting with the rubble.
Do you promise to keep my skies blue?
Yours are orange, too yellow for my liking.
Do you promise to keep the sun shining,
only on my patches of land?
Trade a bit of your shine for mine.
Let me use what’s left of you after your stem has broken, your petals have faded,
and roots disintegrated.”

I now reside in Mercury, a desolate location, too close to the sun. Scorching heat, 9,000 degrees.
Your elemental mixes have now merged with another. And as for me,
a pile of ash is all that remains.
Hovering
Floating
Waxing and waning
In the darkest space between our planets.