Gretchen Tessmer
The
Right Hand of Starlight
she raises her palm
see these lines? not one
without stories
they fill every deep trench
and shallow rivulet
of flesh and blood
and ink—
yes, ink spilled everywhere
across space, across time
taking shape
springing forth
and curling out of darkness
like seeds of creation, they
tumble from her
right hand, gracefully
little diamonds
seeking starlight
Gretchen Tessmer is a writer/attorney based in the U.S./Canadian borderlands of Northern New York. She writes both poetry and short fiction. Her work has appeared in Nature, Daily Science Fiction and Strange Horizons, among other venues.
Editor’s Note: The background stars in the image are the beautiful open cluster called the Jewel Box (NGC 4755 in the Southern hemisphere sky). It was imaged by The FORS1 instrument on the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT) at the Paranal Observatory using very short exposure times: 2.6 seconds through a blue filter, 1.3 seconds through a yellow/green filter and 1.3 seconds through a red filter.
