Nebula, by Joanne Durham

Off Kilter, by Megan Merchant (USA) 2024

Nebula  

Forever rose 
             in double lines 
on a deserted road 
             when I was young, 
 
slowly converged 
             in blurred distance
with no hint 
             of meeting. 
 
Forever sang    
             a million tomorrows:
none of us considered 
            that no life 
 
could stretch that long.
             Forever slid 
off the tongue 
             with the ease of a kiss. 
 
Years later, Forever 
             rolled earth and sun 
into one, brilliant blues
             and startling
 
scarlet tinted green, 
             took shapes
no longer imagined 
             but lived, 
 
a lover, a child grown, 
             us growing old.
We began to glimpse 
             the never of Forever,
 
those highway lines 
             an inky nebula,
 nothing more
             than a nursery for new stars.

Joanne Durham

Joanne Durham is the author of To Drink from a Wider Bowl, winner of the Sinclair Poetry Prize (Evening Street Press 2022) and the chapbook, On Shifting Shoals (Kelsay Books 2023). Her poetry appears in Poetry South, Whale Road Review, Vox Populi, and many other journals and anthologies. She teaches workshops in ekphrastic poetry online and in person. Joanne lives on the North Carolina coast, with the ocean as her backyard and muse. Visit her at https://www.joannedurham.com.