8. Poetry by Kimberly Kuchar & Jerome Berglund
Just Yesterday
coming home
I get lost
on old streets
all these lights
from the past
weighed down
by Earth’s gravity
missing space
meson
a house divided
against itself
her hand on the window
escape shuttle
heterochromia
reaching through the
crosshatched shadow
Dust
the comet
dividing everything
before and after
crunching
salt and glass
her universe
imploding
by his hand
entropy
of combined systems
greater
the music
of a dying star
shortest
wavelength
the blue end
What the Heavens Hide
shrinking
parts
laid out
like peddled wares
core of the moon1
quaking
with contractions
but no birth
she shivers
scouring
a Victorian
coal cellar2
1The core of the moon is slowly shrinking, and this can cause moonquakes.
2Stephen Hawking said his research on black holes, “might seem a bit like looking for a black cat in a coal cellar.”
Kimberly Kuchar
When Kimberly Kuchar gets lost in the stars, poetry helps her find her way back. In 2022, she fell deeper in love with short-form poetry and began writing haiku sequences, haibun, and linked-verse poetry. Her work has been nominated for the Touchstone Award and the Pushcart Prize and has appeared in Frogpond, Presence, Akitsu Quarterly, tsuri-dōrō, Prune Juice Journal, Poetry Pea, The Starlight SciFaiku Review, Five Fleas Itchy Poetry, The Pan Haiku Review, Hearth & Coffin, and other publications. Kimberly also occasionally pens short fiction and enjoys taking photos. She lives near Austin with her husband (and son when he’s not at college) and pet cockatiel.
Jerome Berglund
Jerome Berglund has worked as everything from dishwasher to paralegal, night watchman to assembler of heart valves. Many haiku, haiga and haibun he’s written have been exhibited or are forthcoming online and in print, most recently in bottle rockets, Frogpond, Kingfisher, and Presence. His first full-length collections of poetry, Bathtub Poems and Funny Pages were released by Setu and Meat For Tea press, and a mixed media chapbook showcasing his fine art photography is available now from Yavanika.
Editor’s Note: I sometimes like to include some of the conversation behind the poetry. It can be quite interesting and illuminating. Here’s part of the note from Kimberly:
I’m attaching a rengay (Dust) and a slightly unorthodox split sequence (What the Heavens Hide) for your consideration. The rengay has a sci-fi theme, but it also sort of metaphorically portrays a woman’s experience of abuse. In case you’re unfamiliar with split sequences: they include a seed haiku/senryu, which is split apart into 3 lines, with three new haiku/senryu after each line. This split sequence includes two footnotes at the end. I’ve never included footnotes with a linked-verse poem before, but in this case, I thought it would be helpful to explain the fascinating science behind the verses.