In memory of Kim Jonghyun

The moon is Listerine tonight,
the electric blue and the shock
of that light shooting down my spine
reminds me of you.

Your voice was meant to save people,
both the honey and the husk
and the inscrutable loneliness
we’re unable to thresh out of the stars.

(The headlines said
The Brightest Star on the Stage
Now a Star in the Sky)

Being a poet, an artist,
is to work in the medium of our pain
to translate it into music,
and birth a tangible cosmos.

You bruised me like a brief world
– on these blue nights
I can still feel the softness of your mouth
capturing the tender syllables.