thrall

you were two parts of the same thing,
two stars of the same system:
binary, temporal, constrained.

like a sun courting a planet,
you cycled through your phases,
tethered to her by the strength

of a solar flare,
electromagnetic storm.

without her,
you are still ultraviolet and pristine,
your cold, clean light—

but the sparkle has left your surface.

you orbit around
an imaginary object,
a placeholder for her gravity.