REBECCA BALL
although (/ because)
although (/ because) the forum guy called them
bullet holes I see my six belly wounds as stars
not five-point yellow ones but exploding balls of hot gas
and light self-gravitational and elemental
three burning over my stitched-up stomach three
more over the soft dark space left by my womb
at night when they pulse and prickle I picture blue
sparks of hydrogen and helium under the sheets
I search a name for them and it’s Castor clutching
the outstretched hand of his brother Pollux
in the pale light of my phone I read that Castor’s six
stars are three spectroscopic binaries
pairs of stars so close together even the most powerful
telescopes cannot see them separately
and that only by magnifying the shape of their light
can you tell each star is twice what it appears
and that to the naked eye Castor is a single spot
of light a bright bullet hole in soft dark space