Sagittarius A*

By: Alicia Sometimes

Event Horizon Telescope, May 12, 2022

how we always wanted to know

what was at the center of it all

a sense of generational longing

only cured by operatic narrative

supermassive black hole shadow

glowing ring with cavity puncture

from far: brooding, slumberous

closer: orange-red smouldering

fast spinning silhouette wreath

devouring infalling surrounds

gas, debris swirling its perimeter

as stars slingshot around the rim

the interstices between itself

and those who view back home

an undressing blur of wonder

four million times that of our sun

synced observatories, collaboration

how we come together, uncovering

an image, years in lucid construction

calculations unveiling visions of data

core of our Milky Way hub singing

as we assemble the aperture of notes

---

Alicia Sometimes is an Australian poet, multimedia artist and broadcaster. She has performed her spoken word and poetry at many venues, festivals and events around the world. She is director and co-writer of two science-poetry planetarium shows. Her poems have been published in Best Australian Science Writing, Best Australian Poems, The Age, 

Griffith Review, Meanjin and many more. In 2021 she completed the Boyd Garret residency for the City of Melbourne and a Virtual Writer in Residency for Manchester City of Literature and Manchester Literature Festival. Alicia’s TedxUQ talk, 2019 was on combining art with science.