Synkroniciti is thrilled to welcome Los Angeles writer Jeffrey Bryant with “THEY WOULD DESTROY A GALAXY FOR ME,” a luminous, twinkling poem about stars and the intuitive and constant presence that they can have in our fragile lives. Jeffrey’s poetic voice is entrancing and oracular, impishly playful and searingly earnest. He introduces us to a winking, giggling group of “rascals in the Orion Belt;” Castor and Pollux, the twins, “who said, in unison and I quote, ‘it’s never up to you who turns you on’;” Polaris “who’ll do one thing for me and one thing only: shine.” and “sweet Antares,” a lifelong friend whom he first spotted with his boyhood telescope many years ago, who once told him, “I would destroy a galaxy for you.” The stars are a gentler light than our nearby sun, suitable for more intimate exploration. Over time they become confidants, more reliable than a lover, “always there when you’re standing alone in the dark, straining to hear the future.” This imagery is intensely vulnerable, personal and carried off with full conviction. There is sweetness and hope here, not the cloying, saccharine, Hallmark variety but an authentic expression of life, laced with joy and melancholy.
Experience “THEY WOULD DESTROY A GALAXY FOR ME” in Synkroniciti’s November 30th issue, “Space,” Vol. 5, No. 4, available for purchase here: https://synkroniciti.com/the-magazine/purchase-individual-issues/. This poem was a finalist for our “Space” poetry contest and we have nominated it for a Pushcart Prize.
Jeffrey Bryant is a queer writer and poet from Los Angeles. His work has appeared in the L.A. Weekly, the Los Angeles Times, Poetic Diversity Literary Journal, the New Verse News, and in the anthologies Coiled Serpent from Tia Chucha Press; the 2020 Altadena Literary Review from Shabda Press; Shadowplay Literary Journal from the University of Arkansas and Sparring with Beatnik Ghosts from Mystic Boxing Commission Press.
Jeffrey was a video and visual artist in the collective Damaged Californians and a musician with the bands Killer Wail and Starving Hysterical Naked. He holds BA and MA degrees in political science, and a far more useful certificate of completion from bartender’s school.