Ex. 4 Janell Zimmerer "A star's loss"

She imagined the sky set in blue flame, like ice sprinting across the vagrant nothingness that would extend till eternity. She could no longer see the stars that she had stared at every morning since her father had disappeared. The skylight above here bed now flashed in blues, in greens, lapping at the soft patches that slowly hid over come the stars and now, like the aurora, set down an ocean of light. They wouldn’t notice of course, the blues, the greens, the soft purples—no they wouldn’t see the ocean of light that floods over the sky nightly now.

She imagined that she had been watching this war between the stars and the blue fire slowly over taking everything until it too was stars, moons, cars, dogs, people, solar systems, and all that it touch. But still the people around her went on going to the store, talking on their phones, eating frozen dinners in front of reality t.v. Yes she knew this is what would happen. It is hard to say the moment it would hit the moment the world would start to end, but it would be a slow decline into blueness. What happened after that she had no idea? The stars had lost one night as she lay in her bed.

There had been a boy she saw at the store that day. His hair was jet black and she dreamt of making love to him under the blue flicking sky. The soft lights licking at the sky mirror his tongue licking at her insides. The world was aflame burning slowing to the majestic light that appeared above them. His hands fell against her shoulders and legs twirled around legs, binding them. It was a slow thrusting then short burst that filled her while above she scratched at the world she loved dying.

She would find a new world in him the spots of freckles on his back, the thin lips that parted and met hers as they kissed and pressed flesh against flesh. He had small feet and big smooth hands that grappled with her bra. She had never had sex, she did not know what that first penetration of what appeared to her like a black hole. Sucking all that is around it into it. She had never even seen one before in a magazine or book but she thought it would be dark and vast like a black hole diving into her.

It left her puzzled as she stared up at the stars disappearing as the season changed. How would the stars, and the dead shine have lost? How would blue fire slowly consume the sky with its blinding daylight and stark night light. Wrapped in his arms, after she would notice the sly smile that crept in the corner of his mouth.