Size / / /

These stars will never shine so bright

as they do now. Our future lies

darker & lonelier every night.

Whatever fraction of delight

still flickers dimly in our eyes,

these stars will never shine so bright,

their galaxies in panicked flight

all vacating this scrap of sky

grown darker. Lonelier, every night.

I wish I may, I wish I might . . .

but what's as tedious as why

these stars will never shine so bright

as they once did. Blame physics' blight,

that energy its math implies.

Darker—read lonelier—every night,

our dreams hold less of hope than fright,

too drained of wonder to deny

these stars will never shine so bright.

Darker & lonelier, all our nights.




Ann K. Schwader lives, writes, and volunteers at her local branch library in Westminster, CO. Her most recent poetry collection is Twisted in Dream (Hippocampus Press 2011). Her dark SF poetry collection Wild Hunt of the Stars (Sam's Dot Publishing, 2010) was a Bram Stoker Award nominee. She is a member of SFWA, HWA, and SFPA. Her LiveJournal is Yaddith Times.
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