“Halloween at the End of the Universe”
by Liz Bennefeld
In the asteroid belt,
the veil between the worlds grows thin.
Here, graveyards are orbits around the rocks
that once were home to those
who circle round and round,
peering through our windows
with empty, farseeing eyes.
Beyond, one by one, the stars blink out,
with no short, clear path from Earth–
a failure of applied topology–
to the one bright-burning star that promises
the beginning of a new beginning.
So, Trick or Treat? Here we sit
on this hunk of rock and ice,
watching through the windows for the ghosts
of Grandpa Pat and Great-Aunt Selene to push aside
the thinning veil, resume their bodies,
and guide our spaceships through
the wall between our worlds–
to celebrate Halloween together
at the start of a new-born universe.
Copyright © 2009, by Elizabeth W. Bennefeld. “Halloween at the End of the Universe” was written for and published as an MP3 in the 2009 Science Fiction Poetry Association (SFPA) Online Halloween Poetry Reading.
Quilted Poetry 