Falling Stars
by Meli Broderick Eaton
right there in the hidden chambers of your heart
I was born before I was born where your muscles squeezed
with apprehension, where your pulse drummed
its anticipation and you knew me before you knew me
when you called for my light to paint a new trail in your sky
I fell from stars, fell into the arms of a family tree
the same way you fell into yours and yours became mine
we fell from the heavens to roots threaded deep in the soil
of our grandfathers where decay becomes riches and we rise
as trembling sprouts clasped fast to woody anchors
now, the coins of your limbs have spidered and dropped
into rusting twilight and I see the door you will leave through, there
I will stay and the rhythms of my blood will wave goodbye
letters on our shared strands forming the words my mouth cannot
we will remember each other in the way
we best understood, me sleeping on pillow cheek
tiny bubbles at my suckle mouth, you staring at ghosts
in the flashes of an early morning fire, relaxed in the quiet
wilding dreams of your domesticated heart
as you untangle your branches and stir the sparks, warming the house
Poet bio
Born and raised in Oregon, Meli Broderick Eaton graduated from Sweet Briar College in Virginia, where she spent four years in workshops and one-on-one independent studies with poet Mary Oliver and author John Gregory Brown. Her poem “Stream” won 3rd place in the inaugural The Source/OSU-Cascades MFA annual poetry contest, and other poems will appear this spring in Sixfold magazine and Crosswinds Poetry Journal. She lives on a suburban microfarm with her family in Bend.