All I knew was that I burned,
Resolutely, just as the
Thousands around me always had.
Across the icy midnight of
Space, down the ponderous stairs of
Time, we blazed a fierce trail of potential.
Until
Darkness, darkness that oozed and dragged
Through light and matter leaving the
Universe split, censoring the passion of the cosmos
Leaving a black bar of void in its wake, stroking
Essence from blind, dumb deities
That had known nothing but glorious flames, until
It’s soft caress
Tugged at the embers on their outskirts like a child.
It whispered promises of greatness,
Of a fire to match the First Flame that had
Burst from nothing and ignited the interstellar pathways.
Promises as empty as the absence at its core
That even light could not scale;
I watched as my neighbours were strung in to chains
Atoms torn and stretched soundlessly until only
Palpable nothing remained.
Of course its empty touch drew close
To my shell of heat, caressing with delicate tendrils
The molecules of my being, silencing the crashing
Fusion until all that remained were creations echoes
Funnelled in to an impossibly dense core
Of black, serene as the ocean floor.
Cold. Cold that catches and crushes.