The Poetry of Mark Daniel Milbocker 
As I fall asleep

     As I fall asleep, I am naked, lying on a small, distant dark asteroid; somehow the dark powdery surface is warm, soft and safe.  As my eyes adjust to the zero, I see in the distance a flicker of light, then a dance of color, and begin to make out planets and comets and clusters of stars - all skittering about in each other's orbits.  

     I ponder whether they look more like marbles or ants or maybe bits of glass in a kaleidoscope.  There is no fear here, whether my little chunk of dirt is still or thrust through the abyss, I just lie back and watch the colors and the all-revealing light burning in the friction of a million bodies grinding against gravity, only ever touching in bursts of brilliant vibration.  

     I feel safe because I am so small, if at all - I fear for the larger, lumbering gas giants - moths to their own flame, destined to fall into each other in their ever-becoming.  Perhaps some day, the great turning will notice me and I will learn what it means to be light, but for now, I am content to stretch out on my little hideaway, and let alpha and omega play across the sky in ways that feel familiar but are beyond me.
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