For NGC 4435 and NGC 4438 — the Eyes Galaxies in Markarian's Chain.
Two galaxies passed
within sixteen thousand light-years
of each other — close enough
to tear.
NGC 4438, the larger eye,
lost its disk, its dust lanes twisted
like hair after sleeping
on the wrong side.
NGC 4435, the smaller,
kept its shape but not
its composure. Something
in it remembers.
They sit now in Markarian's Chain
like two people at a dinner party
who once meant everything
to each other
and now mean everything
differently.
The astronomers call them The Eyes.
Not The Wound. Not The Aftermath.
The Eyes — because from fifty-five
million light-years away
they look like something
looking back.
In a small telescope on a spring night
you can see them both at once:
two glowing ovals
in the same field of view,
still falling
through the same cluster,
still caught
in the same gravity,
still not
touching.
The most violent interaction in the Virgo Cluster
left two galaxies
that look like they're watching
you watch them.