197197

Sun 
Radiation of romance, 

Center of this hopeless heart. 
My warmth so dependent on arms 

Outstretching into a flaming embrace. 
Revolving kisses gently blow in solar wind 
With electric charged strands held in hands  
And lipstick pressed against golden dome. 
A collection of your smiles erupt my day, 

Making life bright and sweat glisten. 
Sweet words, sweet promises 

Chase along soft axis 
Of your lips. 

Mercury 
Heart ignited at first, 

But I always came in second. 
Responses flow in small variables, 

Pass of 88 days before my recognition. 
Even with thin atmosphere– transparency 
Of emotions, pressure keeps me breaking. 
I named you after a god, but my ideations 
Are Helios, and I start to question faith. 

I ignore irritations to preserve tails 
Made in quickness of our start, 

Pushing lack of shady, 
Dark moons. 

Jaylee Chastain

Hopeless Songs to the Solar System



198

Venus 
Love and beauty– 

Hot and ready, so they say. 
You may appear bright in my sky, 

But acid rain laced words burn my skin.  
Despite stings, I’m drawn to your magnetic 
Field of charm, amber hair, heat unleashed. 
My thinking rotates clockwise as my gaze 

Darts to the brightest star in blanketed, 
Tragic sky, dim orbs peppered lightly. 

Even with your beaming spirit, 
A telescope still seems 

Needed. 

Earth 
I seem so convinced 

That only you can give me life. 
Only you can give something organic, 

Or pure slivered tastes of something real. 
Beauty can bloom, but core cannot uncover 

If crust of my being is merely being picked at. 
I’m suffocating on oxygen, but only artificial.  
The flowers on my skin are just now grown, 

And with them I make you a bouquet. 
But you can’t even gift a seed 

On the day that I was 
And am. 

 

Mars 
Storms of dust whir, 

Emotion specks around– water 
Freezing over by red that I ignored. 

Not even Olympus Mons can compare 
To cratered communication days you deal. 
I keep making excuses, defending possible, 
Potential life residing in our future, but you 

Can not look past that thin atmosphere 
To even attempt to uncover such 

Revelation about my being. 
Delusions of superior– 

Astronaut. 



199

Title of piece

Jupiter 
Clouded visionary 

And rapid rotation of thought. 
Your heart seems so big sometimes, 

Until you are in a Red Spot. Pushing field 
Yet I pull, knowing you are no king to name. 
I see your faint rings, I have memorized each, 
Though it is too much trouble to know mine. 

Too much time, too much time, you can’t 
Handle the clouds in the sky, nor stars 

So why do I expect memorization 
Of constellations? You only 

Know Little Dipper. 

Saturn 
No intention of big rings, 

I suppose I knew from the start. 
I asked and you took six steps back. 

As a result, I choke on your dust and ice. 
I can feel you furthering, your flattened tone, 

Sudden rockiness to your core, short-worded conversation– 
Dense talks at surface level, and simple, small-scale visions. 

I can’t seem to land on a reasonable decision. 
My jet-streamed conscious falters pole 

To pole, moons falling to pieces 
In the weighted gravity  

Of this soul. 

 
Uranus 

Your cold shoulder, 
The very same I would lean on. 

Your particles of dust have turned dark, 
That I no longer have the skill to read you. 

We finally start to collide, spinning on my side, 
Facing my back towards what used to be warm. 
Your eagerness no longer visible to naked eye. 
I have to squint, even then you’re drifting off. 

I didn’t think I would begin to feel blue 
With you in my system, my love. 

Yet here I stand, a gas 
Of ideal. 



200

Neptune 
Further from heat, 

Further away from my heart. 
Frequent storms occur, but your voice 

Never had the courage to raise itself up– 
Grab the attention from 7 other planets away. 

Now you will speak of rings to others in system 
Just as you might have done while still with me. 
Only now I can’t hold you back, nor can I grasp 

On the imagination of the rings you showed 
To me in the back of my hopeful mind. 

May I see your face in the stars, 
Becoming someone 

Else’s sun.