Star Bright

STAR BRIGHT

by Matteo L. Cerilli

I once envied lost boys. I wanted to be picked
apart by magpies for the fey to find.
I wish you trusted me to die out there.
To press sticky palms to the root
of trees who never learned the lessons
written in my teeth. Rotting

my innocence on honeysuckle and thorn-crowns.
I’d know how a boyhood burns in the throat.
Now I understand nothing but youth
slipping like fingers from smooth branches.

I’ve grown too old for story books. There are others
in the fire, of the wolfborn, the undiscerned and speared
with stars for incisors. Maybe the third star has a place

for lost men bigger than tree houses. For someone’s
rough tongue sopping blood off your knuckles
and moonshine off your lips. I’m more pirate
than runaway;
show me what else is waiting.
Drop your son into the sky,
and let him drown there happily.