It's Still Life

The Architecture of a Moment

The Architecture of Vertically Aligned Carbon Nanotubes

I.
Vantablack

They say it’s a colour,
but they are wrong.
It’s a hunger so absolute
it drinks the light —

the velvet throat
in the fabric of things.

It’s not the black of night,
or ink,
or space;
those are merely dark.
This is Physics.

A star could weep
its fiery heart into its depths
and make no more impression
than a thought
in a sleeping god’s mind.

It is the silence
after the symphony has ended,
swallowed
by its own perfect chord.

It is the student
who absorbs every secret
others are too bright to see.

And I feel a gentle vertigo —
as if something is looking back at me,
finding in my gaze
a similar,
beautiful void.

II.
Vantablack (accentual verse)

Not colour —
but hunger,
drinking light,
the velvet throat
in the fabric of things.

Not night,
not ink,
not space —
merely dark.
This is the Physics of nothing.

A star could weep,
and darkness keep its peace.

The silence after song,
the mind of a sleeping god.

Something looks back —
and in my gaze,
finds
a beautiful void.

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Written for Writers’ Digest Poem-a-Day Challenge, prompt: Pick a colour and write a poem. Poems/prose and some images are ©Misky 2006-2025.