The Act of Dying & Ad Astra Per Aspera
By Uki Lazarev
Artwork by Uki Lazarev.
The Act of Dying
Maybe we’re satellites
in the orbit of a dying sun
the only remnant of its love|
left in the tides of gravity
What is gravity but grief
the thing that keeps us coming back
Despite the lack of warmth
despite the lack of light
despite the lack of life
Like gravity
grief will pull us into
the event horizon
of what we love
How beautifully all that light must spiral
how we will weave it into
constellations again
a pulsing orb
in place of a sun to say
I was here.
Ad Astra Per Aspera
as if the heavens / would bend under
their weight
how many g’s does it take / before
the atmosphere caves in?
before our atoms dance themselves
into / pure plasma?
point to that horizon and / tell me
that beyond the red-shifted light / of
our sun / that there is a lesson to
learn / from bending heavens
that one day we will be / more than
just pulsars / beating the same
rhythm / the same dots and dashes /
convincing each other that / perhaps
/ there is other life in the universe
the same dots and dashes
… — …
as if the heavens / had bent under their weight
About the author
Uki is a second year Physics and History major at the Universtiy of Toronto, she has a passion for bringing out the art in physics, making the beauty of science more accessible to all. She is also the Creative Director for this volume of The Orbiter and also works as an Assistant Project Manager for YSpacE.
Artwork in the publication from 2022 by Uki.