“Lithium,Chromium”

by Diane Furtney

Sugars in deep space, interstellar
water arranging itself into something cellular

via a cold membrane
around each molecule; black lanes

of clouds inside star groups, replete
with silicon and the beauty grit

of carbon; ions horsing around on comets;
every light in the sky of any planet

arriving from a direct sibling
or subtle cousin or prosperous, helloing

Auntie Mame from the Big Bang;
colored baubles over a crib; old and young

magnetars braiding the spacetime in plaits
to the edge of the cosmos; re- and re-restated

metal explosions, friction, ratios
of pressure and temperature, E-I-E-I-O,

clay-crystal rings, mineral alliances
in the air and underfoot; apparent distances,

apparent isolation, but not one object
actually in disconnect;

unmitigatable violence,
runaways, multivalence

re-bondings; titanic things moving in thrall
to the strong force at the level

of the nuclear; a silent din
overhead from more templates of hemoglobin

and skin: all physical chemistry
is difficult, it is entirely about family.