In envisioning literacy at a crossroads, we ask what may be the potential of a different, intense, possible love, a love we may scarcely know and may yet discern--what we think of as a cosmic love, an explosive love. Such stance-taking in literacy research provokes new possibilities for research, teaching, and learning. We share brief narrative vignettes, moments we pointedly name as "these tellings," and assert possibilities across two interconnected approaches: these tellings as beginnings, and our lives are entangled in our work. In these approaches, we point to opportunities for (re)conceptualizing prisms through which to engage in the work of literacy research and practice as we recognize, respond to, and build from both joy and heartache urgently present, across times past, current, and to come.