Nuances: A Full 180 Turn

They say we can see
thirteen billion light years in

that diection.  But,

look in the other:  oh my

good God, the stars have gone out!

 

A neutron star has just

devoured Uranus---way too

close.  The Congresses

cannot pause their bickerings

to consider escape plans.

 

Kyakuchuu

Author's Notes/Comments: 

In the original draft, the planet to be devoured would have been Pluto.  But Uranus sounds more . . . uh . . . disturbingly intimate.

 

The fourth and fifth lines of the first tanka are my riff on the end of Arthur C. Clakre's chilling short story, "The Nine Billion Names Of God."

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