White Dwarf

Shuttles return to earth
survived by screws,

hatch covers & the contents
of human stomachs.

Space is made up of our spare parts.

Islands carved from water
droplets hovering above a blue dot.

Humanity condensed
into footage of a tin can.

Bolts the same size
as stars we see at night.

The obituary of a planet begins
with what it leaves behind.

We are survived by the parts
we needed at one time.

*

Shannon Austin (she/her) is a writer from Baltimore, MD, with an MFA in poetry from UNLV. Her work has appeared in Drunk Monkeys, Rust + Moth, Nimrod Journal, Okay Donkey, and elsewhere.