In her final moments, prostrate on the bed,
she imagined herself flying through the stars,
an intergalactic explorer, discovering new planets
and naming new creatures never before seen.
She stops at a small blue marvel,
flooded with water full of strange fish.
She can’t be sure if this is the home she knew
or the home she will come to know
but she finds it beautiful and tranquil.

In the distance, she sees a giant red star.
During her flight there, she feels a sadness,
as if her body is finally cutting away her tethers
and she is now less attached to it,
the freedom of exploring the universe at her leisure
tainted by the fact she is all alone out here.
She always believed a journey was not worth making alone,
it just wasn’t the same without someone to share the wonder with.
Out here, in the cold darkness of space,
the loneliness speared her heart.

The red star bulged at its equator ready to burst any moment.
Dark spots swirled and danced together on its surface,
growing and cooling and shrinking and disappearing,
new ones soon to take their places.
She flew around to the other side and saw herself,
stretched across the entire surface of the star,
lying on her bed, barely holding on,
wires with clear fluid and blood flowing through them.
In the image, her eyes flickered open slightly.
The star shrunk to a tiny point of light
then exploding in brilliant whiteness…

…gasping for breath as her eyes opened wide,
the bright light above her burning her eyes.
She was all alone in her room,
just a machine beeping frantically.
She was back in her own universe,
all alone with no one to share her journey with.
She cried herself to sleep that night,
her right hand holding her left
and she dreamed of a star exploding,
giving birth to a new her.