For Min Yoongi

Photo by Jeremy Thomas on Unsplash

Black nylon stretches across the sky. Where it tears, the stars shine through, peering at humanity with their golden and crimson eyes. The old man on the park bench beside me grips his cane with white knuckles and stares back at those stars. His jaw clenches like he’s holding a decades-long grudge. Maybe he senses my awe, because he looks at me just then, but the malice I expect in his watery brown eyes is something entirely different: a little fear, a little…