Wish upon a star that falls
Dying, as rays of light leave it
But is it really death
To go out in an explosion?

To the witnesses below:
A beacon of hope is lost
A source of light
A guide for those long gone

To the sky above:
A sibling has left them
One less star left behind
As they wait for their time to come

To the dreamer:
Death is beauty
Even as the darkness washes over
The remaining light

To the planets:
Once bathed in its light
They cherished its warmth
But alas-it is gone


To the star:
As the last of its embers
Flickers out
It wonders
What will become of it
In the afterlife?

Rocking your head back and forth
Disbelieving faces stare
As you cry for mercy
Quietly going insane

Dropped through the hole
Feeling nothing at all
As you saw what the world could be
Reality and fantasy kaleidoscoping

When you awoke--
The brightness was gone
Vanished from your mind
And your ideas seemed inconceivable
--to the others

Oh, the others
The disbelievers
The skeptics
The ones that refused to open their mind

Possibility spreads like a tree from a single root
But they are unable to see it
Instead, they dismiss you
Send you to the sanitarium
Where your screams of madness can be heard
Even today

A gaping hole
Straight through the brain
Perfectly cylindrical
Holds no mercy as it rings
Through my body

The gun is still smoking
From the heat of his hatred
Shot right through my brain
Can’t even consume it
The idea that he had done it

Silver bullet through my brain

I feel it coming
The rush of recklessness
The active adrenaline
As it surges through my body

I may fall
But I will rise
And continue on

Only one life to live
May it be my last
As I run past
Towards the setting sun

Youth is like a day
Early brightness
That dies out like a star

Wind it up
So it beats
At a rhythmic pace

Skim your finger over it
Cherishing it
And its fragility

Shatter it
To let the emotions flow outward
As you have broken my heart

All but still
Wheat wavering in the distance, shivering in anticipation
Animals hide away, tucked in the safety of hideaways, holes, and orifices
Humans crouch underground, waiting
Hours pass
A lone alarm shouts across the land
"This is an emergency. I repeat, an emergency warning"
So loud that those below, closer to hell than ever before, clutch their ears
For they are ringing from the vibrant sound waves stretching across the fields
A slight change in wind directions
A little bit of motion
Begins the devastation

A lone inverted triangle appears
Seemingly hovering, inches above the ground
Circling its prey, before it gorges itself
Endless cyclic motions, vacuuming everything in its path
Houses, barns, plants fly
Tugged from the attraction to the ground to the sky
Engulfed by the tornado
That winds down a path of destruction

On a whirlwind high
Drunk off of its power
Invoking pain for no reason, except that it can
Land ripped to shreds
Houses taken and tossed miles and miles away
Barns slingshotted across the American countryside
And the deaths
Oh the deaths

Those who thought they could wait it out
Survive again once more
Those who tried to chase the twister
Mesmerized by its hypnotic dance
Those who were in the wrong place at the wrong time
Oblivious to their preventable fate

When the humans emerged
From their underground bunker
They found a land left ruined
Wiped blank of human development
With that they shed tears
Watering the fertile lands
As the tornado wrecked havoc
It brought a rebirth
A chance to start again fresh

“The void will come to take us away,”
she said, tears streaking down her cheeks
“One by one, they pick us off.”
She let go

And I screamed
And screamed
And screamed

Still tightly grasping the wall
Still breathing
Still living

But barely

I yelled, muscles tensed in frustration
The room seemed to be closing in on me

“Calm down. Take deep breaths,” my therapist said
I strained against my head
My conscience breaking into a thousand dissonant voices

“I could have saved her. She didn’t have to go.”

“You couldn’t save yourself. The void was unavoidable,” she said,
Stroking my hair in long, tangled motions

“But I could have. I could have done more. I should have done more.”
Tears streaked across my face, like window wipers spinning out of control.

“The void comes to take us all.”
And with that thought,
I, too, let go