Supernova, or Chandrasekhar's Limit



Stare at the wall
straight ahead  the latin
script and ver  i  tas
tasteful paneling and
works of art   begin

(a breath)
a star, more massive than
Chandrasekhar's limit
when it exhausts its fuel
like a father running out 
of patience  quick, sudden
goes through stages
and changes visible
to naked eyes

not long before a supernova
a star emits a signal
a beam, almost invisible,
of neutrinos, a final
warning before explosion
like the catch in his voice
that telltale little rasp
and then its fuel is gone
the shell of gas collapses

the enormous energy of that
collapse touches off a 
monumental explosion
blowing away half the star's mass
like the voice that shakes 
the house to its foundations
and implodes the other half
down into itself

what's left behind  compressed
to negligible size is what 
they call a black hole
something crushed beyond the
limits of the universe
like the small boy forced to 
stay to sit across the table
forced into something strange 
and baffling that does not follow 
the rules we know of the world we
understand
(a sigh)

end   pick at the fake leather
on the chair   stare out 
the window   hear the traffic 
far below   until a soft 
insinuating clearing of the throat

it must not hve been a supernova
then, she says, because I can
understand you fine

(a breath)
begin