Tabi Parent
Somewhere out there
between Betelgeuse — Orion:
cosmic glint off the side of the spaceship
cruising down the interstellar
at 35000 miles per hour
is the heart of a 27-year-old woman
in love.
Ann Druyan knew that when he died, she would never see Carl Sagan again.
To her, death was never anything but the final frontier —
How many of you can say that you know
where exactly
your 27-year-old heart is?
Could you say you knew it was
looped to play forever, stopping only
at the first touch of hands
not from this universe —
extraterrestrial who finds it first:
golden disc dripping with all
we deemed fit for the stardust to know
about these tiny 200,000 years
of us.
If she learned anything from having her love enshrined, written
in the stars,
it is that death
is not to be feared
nor trivialized
It is the great equalizer in that way —-
no, it is merely the last goodbye
a kiss on the forehead
and a hand squeeze on the front step
under the buzz of the summer porchlight .
One final glimpse over your shoulder
at the boy down the planetary aisle in Safeway
before your mom comes back
and you put the shopping cart away.
Blast off, final orbit.
It fits so nicely into the next one.
Goodbye to a love you stuck around
to say farewell to:
like Ann and Carl
who didn’t believe in God,
but has science and love —
and some nebulaic way of showing it.
Tabi Parent is a junior at Northwestern University, studying journalism and integrated marketing communications in the Medill School of Journalism. She is from not-so-sunny San Francisco and has since discovered Chicago is even less sunny—but full of warm humans. She has written for multiple publications, but most recently spent time in New York City working at PEOPLE magazine. At Northwestern, she spends most of her time at the paper, The Daily Northwestern, where she held positions like Social Media Editor and Assistant Arts & Entertainment Editor. Previously, she reported for The San Francisco Bay Times, writing columns and covering events like Pride Night at the SF Opera. In her downtime, she loves a nice walk through a tree-lined street and hanging out with Muggles, her family’s wolf-a-doodle.
