NVN Wednesday: Lover-Crossed Stars

“Arranged Marriage” by Lavinia Kumar and “Mirrored” by Diana Morley

ARRANGED MARRIAGE

by Lavinia Kumar

Pluto and Charon. (Getty Images) “…researchers reported that in the early stages of formation Charon and Pluto came together and orbited as one, swapping some materials before separating. They call this cosmic dance a “kiss and capture” event…” —Yahoo! News, January 9, 2025

*

It was no secret Charon and Pluto
had an arranged marriage.
Neither knew the other
before the aunties agreed
stars and family were aligned.
 
Charon brought her dowry,
and with much ceremony
they were wed, the entire
Kuiper village at the nuptials
 
But, alas, it was a fraught marriage—
Pluto, unhappy, decided to undo 
this union. Naturally, he decided
to keep the dowry brought by Charon, 
those valuable diamonds,
that cache of ice.
 
Then, unfortunately, the divorce 
was not agreed to, was discouraged,
by families on both sides. And so, 
for eternity, these two unhappy beings 
are together. And apart.  
Both unhappy.
 
They had no children.

*

See Lavinia Kumar’s three food stories in Issue Five of Ruby Literary Press, The Monsoon Rain winning a 2024 Pushcart nomination.

*

MIRRORED

by Diana Morley

Astronomers studying the murky center of our Milky Way Galaxy have discovered something they never expected: a pair of young stars orbiting each other near the supermassive black hole that is our Galaxy’s dark heart. The observation—reported today in Nature Communications—comes as a surprise because astrophysicists had thought the black hole’s intense gravity would either rip the stars in such a pair apart or squash them together. But the new object, dubbed D9, shows that such a “binary” can survive, at least briefly, near the black hole, and it could help explain other mysterious objects in the vicinity.—Science, December 17, 2024

*

Black holes, 
viewed as enormous
greedy suckers 
in galaxy centers
swallowing gas, dust, 
anything coming
their way, and 
two stars just sighted
whipping around 
closer to the Milky Way’s 
own black hole 
than any seen before, 
testing laws of physics 
like teenagers
testing sass for the line
just under the nose 
of consequences.

*

Diana Morley publishes poetry online (The New Verse News, The Ravens Perch, and Exterminating Angel Press), and in County Lines, a literary journal. She's published a chapbook, poetry collection, documentary of photos and poems, and most receently, a short story.