non emotional comet

Trey Pharis

there are stars and galaxies and quasars and the speed of light is massive

there are tiny flickers of light and sometimes there is a tree

there is bacteria growing on an asteroid maybe

there are space/time anomalies that will melt your face off

there is a supernova that will decapitate nine billion frantic people with a silent massive scream

there is a time travel paradox that confuses most indoor cats

there are extremely advanced civilizations of insane murderous lifeforms that can breathe multiple atmospheric compositions and can endure the cold void of space whose social political and economic systems are predicated on hunting other organisms to the point of mass extinction

there are people on a rock

the people walk by generally ignoring most other people

the people flatten mountains and rearrange them into rectangular prisms and they walk inside and sit there for eight hours a day

when they are confused they look toward flickering lights and make tiny strange sounds

seismic activity occurs and so do topological changes and the amount and size of water deposits vary

there are no more people

some planets have different orbits and the universe has expanded massively into colder regions

you make tiny strange sounds

you can no longer see flickering lights

you move away from yourself at an immense velocity

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Trey Pharis lives, sleeps, and checks his email in or near Houston. He has a forthcoming collection of poems, entitled ‘emoji death mask’, to be published by Maudlin House in spring 2016. He sporadically tweets @skeletonsaurus.