In another universe there may be answers
to every awkward question she can ask
but, closer to home, How do you really feel?
Where were you when I rang? Why are you lying?
are merely minor asteroids, conspiring
to ambush the hormone-fuelled astronaut.
Like a Flying Dutchman, he roams the cosmos
looking for that soft landing on Venus,
not knowing his direction of travel,
a chaotic victim of many-body interactions.
What have you to say for yourself? Words?
A black hole radiates meaningful words
and a distant cluster begins to form
at the tangled intersection of a billion
narrow unnavigable wormholes.
He prefers to launch an unmanned robot
to avoid exposure to lethal flares.
Do you still love me? is beyond his reach.