Mantis 21 (Summer 2023)
New Poetry

Enne Baker


   Star Scars

You drew stars around my scars,

And now I’m bleeding, and the blood exiting

My galactic wound is eating itself into a

Blackhole by leaving.

I can count my lucky stars,

That I have you giving me your

Weekends to do this for me.

Spring breaks loose;

It’s nightfall; the stars are evident

In this kind of hour.

I live and die for moments that we stole,

As we grew grey and old,

Sleeping in for half a day,

Gay and sad,

We can call it even.

I was read by you many times,

To the point, you became dead,

Like a shooting star,

You couldn’t interpret my wishes anymore.

So you decide to place yours onto mine,

As I grant them, and you take them for granted,

So I grant the wishes of the old scars you drew on

Me, connected with a marker to its

Healed parts and filled its space to transcend.


ENNE BAKER is an American poet with Montenegrin lineage. His first and only poetry collection is The White Colossus.