as something less or
more than mortal. Her spacewalk
ended when her oxygen ran out.
She should have expired only
she didn’t. Perhaps the frigid void
preserved her in a virtual stasis.

The wonder is she’s still aware.
A swarm of sentient neurons
sparkle as they orbit round her helmet—
they constitute her mind.

Gray rocky meteors of memory
flare in a foggy recollection like
frozen comets heated by the sun.
Who she was she doesn’t know
but she remains.

As her molecules spread apart
pulled by gravitons, she elongates and
is dispersed across the universe
dissipating like darkness in fluorescence.

Still, each tiny particulate that was her
still is. Landing like embers on
an Earthlike planet, her consciousness
burns itself into alien brains.

They dream of biped humanoids who
roam the galaxy ravaging, and waking,
blink their convex eyes in terror and wonder
if they’ve gone insane.