Together
NaPoWriMo 29/30, After Richard Siken's "The Dislocated Room" and Aly & AJ's Pretty Places
Apr 29, 2026 · 2 min read
Nine years since I asked you to dig up
every atom of this neon star,
every orbit through dorms and hotels
and switchbacks of comets in the
void of turbid cosmos near our first
apartment. We’ve parted with many
particles, peeled our photospheres.
Bunny, we’ve pried open the opaque
plasma. Opaque as the dolphin and
shark plushies we lend our prominence.
Transparent as when I take you for
a drive and I sing I’ll go anywhere!
Doesn’t matter how far!
As when I implode, you’ll
still feel me here,
even when I’m
lumpy,
stuffing exposed,
salt returned to sea,
coal too dark to feed on sun,
a t o m i c s o u p
-e r n o v a e
This poem is very much me building up from three things. First off, the end might be recognizable to people who’ve been following me for a minute. I posted an earlier version of the last stanza as its own little standalone poem in response to a note by ONLY POEMS DAILY:
Second, the idea of digging out a shining star definitely came from Richard Siken’s classic, “The Dislocated Room,” my favorite poem from his collection Crush. You can listen to him read it here: https://voca.arizona.edu/track/id/58707
Third, the song lyrics I quote are from Aly & AJ’s “Pretty Places.” Love that song, tbh love that whole album the song is on. No notes. Here’s a link to the music video if you haven’t heard it before: https://youtu.be/NxpW4B3WBg8?si=ZFGO8dWmeipMHdDp
Anyway, I hope you all are doing well on this penultimate day of NaPoWriMo! I’ll see y’all tomorrow for the last poem, oooh (I have no idea what I’m going to write yet, trust).