A Selection of Centauran Poetry

A Selection of Centauran Songs and Poetry

Centauran Sonnets

Fallen Star*

By Daran Katagiri
NCE 6

Your cheeks were flushed a rose pale pink that day.
The glass I lift to you today trembles.
Those booming engines never brought you home;
Your bedside sheets palled an ironic green.
We took you to the window as you asked,

And your tears tolled of birth--a deathless star.

Our children all came crowding round you then,
Above their heads you looked at me, and smiled.
You're free of me now; in God's court, we're dreams.
Until the Day of God I'd not pursue,
For I must lead the babes of Ashura.

A boatman waits on glassy Jordan's marge.

* The title refers to the NCE 3 death of Sanda May Foll, who died of a severe fever en route to the Centaurus system, and who would be later recognized as Daran Katagiri's Sapphire wife. The sapphire is one of the many associations of star imagery, since some sapphires refract light in such a way as to create a star pattern within the stone. Naturally, this poem was written when House Katagiri still claimed the Emerald position; today, no Katagiri could have a Sapphire wife.