Settle

You can't be a constellation on your own.

It takes teamwork to hold up the sky,

— and society is built on us all setting aside our need to be the whole damn sun

— — — and work instead

.

on shining in our happy little corners.

.

But what if

—————— you fall from the sky?

.

— What if the black dome of the galaxy

———— doesn't cradle you as tightly as you were promised it would?

.

.

Don't worry, this is how life works:

You wake up

You go to work

You eat your food

You pay your bills

You sleep again

.

You contribute.

.

.

When my cycle was broken,

and I crashed through the atmosphere not so much burning with stardust but fizzling with decay,

I was just left to wonder if instead of a celestial body made of shimmering gas and the correct elemental makeup to form gold in the right conditions,

.

I was actually just a firework destined for one great explosion.

.

.

Destined

to be

——————forgettable.

.

When my cycle became:

.

Sleep

Pain

Sleep

Pain

Sleep

.

Each repetition of this routine had me tugged further and further from the happy little constellation I'd been told since birth it was my duty to complete.

.

Maybe I was only ever a scattering of stardust, deluding myself that I could burn alone for millennia.

.

Stars last.

————— Some burn so bright, we're left only seeing the trail that they've left behind, even when they're long dead, we still see their light,

.

so if you stand with the stars, there's a promise you can't possibly be forgettable.

.

.

As I crash my way through the atmosphere I get a few choices.

.

I could dim my light so I fizzle, don't make too much of a fuss, don't show up on any radars and make people worry

I could set fire to everything surrounding me, leave a trail so bright and burning it's impossible not to notice me

.

Or instead

.

I could notice

——I could breathe and notice

.

That while I may be falling from what was, it doesn't mean I'm crashing down to Earth, to shatter against rock and dirt.

That actually I'm falling into place, circling my way around a different constellation, a different patch of sky.

.

Where we still burn

but with a different purpose:

.

To wake up

To love

To nap

To create

To be alive

.

and, sometimes, to fall asleep and stay that way.

.

.

.

.

I'm not just the stardust, so I won't settle.