Gabriela Valencia

CANTATA AD ASTRA 

Midnights my life glimpsed a silver trajectory.
Comet trailing ice-bright, my fate was destiny.

Solitude made a timeless friend. Guarded me 
as a silence. I was secretly beautiful, furtively 

good, immortal in waiting. Years glided
as a backdrop, behind me, and the world rolled

to meet me at my feet. My cheeks burned hot,
though all experience was but rehearsal. My voice

alone carried the message of my being; my voice
which would never change but one day

sing The Song. In winter, the windows
of cars. A blackened school bus floating by, charred 

without the fire. Atop a telephone pole, I knew
knowledge itself would fall delicate upon me, 

as a veil. I planned my acts of surprise. (I knew, 
I was secretly beautiful, furtively good, immortal 

in waiting.) Dressed in the wools of pity, the weight
of hope was not apparent. I held fast to the details 

of life. My rosebud heart beat a practiced beat. 
Had I not had enough lessons in humility.

Gabriela Valencia is an American poet and writer. Her honors include a Robert Pinsky Global Fellowship in Poetry and finalist recognitions from the Peter Porter Poetry Prize, CRAFT Hybrid Writing Contest, San Miguel De Allende Writers’ Conference Writing Contest, and Bermuda Triangle Prize. Her work appears in Watershed Review, Great Lakes Review, Volume, Degenerate Art Literary Journal, and elsewhere. She received her MFA in Poetry from Boston University and lives in rural Nebraska with her partner Josh and their two herding dogs, Rainer and Zola.