by Claire Scott

Stars that are moving away emit red-shifted light. Light shifts down on the color spectrum as the wavelength appears stretched. Stars speeding toward us emit blue-shifted light, the color waves closer together.

I see red light around
Your familiar body
You didn’t come home last night
Or the night before
You turn away when I ask
Shoulders hunched
Truncated calls at
Two am, strange
Scratches on your neck
Odd interest in tennis
Odd trips to where?
Nights on the couch
Nights in scotch
My black nightie
No longer suffices
No longer entices
I can’t find the center
Where we lived the
Nanosecond before
The big bang exploded
Our world
Your red-shifted light
Moving faster and
Farther away
You a distant galaxy
Each day I pray for
Your body beside me
Bathed in blue light.


Claire Scott has published poetry in a number of literary magazines, including Trivia, Write Wing, Stepping Stones, Epiphany, Organs of Vision and Speech, Red Savina Review, Writers Tribe Review, Foliate Oak Literary Magazine, Common Threads, Poydras Review and Literary Yard. She was recently nominated for the 2014 Pushcart Prize. Claire is a Marriage and Family Therapist with a private practice in Berkeley, CA. She has two children, two children by marriage and four grandchildren. She lives with her husband in Oakland, CA.