Astropoetica: Lithopedion, by Robert Borski

Stillborn, but

then kept,

the unreleased

dead child

floats in the

amniotic dark

like pearly

grit, but

accumulates

no nacre,

just particles

of bone,

thus petrified,

becoming its

own lambent

gravestone.

Small wonder

Mother Earth

looks so blue.

Image Credit: STS-35 Crew, NASA

Robert Borski's poetry appears most often in Star*Line and Strange Horizons. As an eighth grader in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, he was introduced to the night sky via the eyepiece of his neighbor Stephen Walther, who would later found Astronomy magazine.