Christopher Ankney

Bebe Rexha as Metaphor

after Martín Espada

Young no-namers desire to be her. She offers them
superstar pointers same as an old man to his son 

with his finger like an arrow to the clear night map
pointing out the transposition of what was drawn 

on paper into the sky—and that excites the man
whether or not his son transforms this frenzy 

into a memory of glue or scissors. Truth is
there is little more to explore in drawing

constellations other than to say to his son,
We like to make meaning out of the infinite lights 

because we imagine the universe breathes on us.
Are we the cake and candle to be eaten? Are we 

the children of gods, or just a prick of light
turned on when our sun finally consumes us?

We cannot imagine a happy life
when there’s the pain of being alone, desire for 

companions. A man wants his son to love him—
or he should—because they make gods

of each other—not little tyrants, little corporals
like Napoleon, but everyday breaths

that exist in the dry light against the wet heat
absence shapes of lungs that looks like a star 

before it dissipates back into the sky. Who is Bebe Rexha?
The man’s son can point her out of a crowd of stars, 

while the man cannot. To the man she is an ordinary life
with a familiar sound bandied about 

the current generation. It isn’t that he is old
or she is young. Both are fading light.

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Christopher Ankney's Hearsay won the 2014 Jean Feldman Prize at WWPH and was finalist for the 2015 Ohioana Book Award for Poetry. His poems have been featured in Boston Review (online), Electric Literature’s The Commuter, Gulf Coast, Hunger Mountain, Pleiades and dozens of other fine journals over the years. In Fall 2026, he will be the Dr. Maureen Murphy Distinguished Professorship for Equity in Education at College of Southern Maryland, where he is a tenured professor of English. His author website is www.christopherankney.com.