per aspera ad astra

Words by Francesca Pietkiewicz (she/they)

it’s a dark and dreamy memory 

somber 

siesta 

sobriety. 

once submerged, you’ll see    

obsolescent truth sleepwalking seamlessly.

the sunken sooth set free

a loose thread,  ready 

                         to heave.

entering into impermanence

descend all dark-nervousness

it’s ad astra

again.

                                  advancing now

 and then.                       

per aspera ad tenebris,

by rough to dark, 

enter the abyss. 

learn how to stand ground higher than stars, and reminisce 

about set, 

setting and circumstances.

post-emotional echo chamber 

and chances

transcend trauma 

transition past 

another 

astral ancestral or

grandmother.

anielica alabaster

per aspera ad astra... 

ad tenebras

what it means to be blind and bypass 

the galactic gaze 

of glazed adversity

grazing for stars and apogee.

                       walk backward,  

           in time 

    with moon rock 

debris.

  living concordant to lunar 

calendar -

cancerous  

one lunaic landslide per 

cycle: 

cadaverous.

But this is the age of Aquarius, 

and

you are Capricorn, contrarious

yet, balanced by acceptance - unanimous

your audacious 

ascendant 

rises 

roaring, as the fifth.

I see now 

it’s cerebral 

It’s myth.

here lies 

a transformation through difficulty.

an illuminated philosophy

             awoken by stellar viscosity.

The dark and dreamy memory.