By Mark Penny

 

There was

A shuddering of dust

Light followed

Sharp as knives

Riving the interstice of mind

Crimson and lucent flared the dawn

The mountains lapped it like a rain

Down flowed the waters

Rivers

Falls

To lakes

To oceans

Restless sand

Swirled in the aftermath of breath

The sighing planet

Fumed and stirred

Smoke overwhelmed it

Curled and fled

Stuck to its surfaces like sweat

Hardened and sloughed

And joined the sand

The sun rose upward

Outward

Failed

In a last vanishing of fire

All the vast cohorts of wild stars

Spread themselves madly

Spark by spark

Then hushed

And lay still

In the dark

 

(Originally published in Wilderness Interface Zone)