1.
We are surprised when the darkness lands.
It is never our time; hope fractured.
Because we always hope.
New companions: The broken heart, the fear, the endless closing shade
That makes it hard to breathe;
The creeping loneliness, some inevitable dimension

Where there is nothing, but the cold judging universe.
Not even light; a world sealed,
with us at the core.
Weighted, anchored, pressed to inaction.
The pain of a growing cry
With no one to hear it.
Centered, silent, singular, shrouded.
Sound fades to a hiss, touch to stone.
Cloaked, thick with endless time.
Sunk. Bottomed. Walled. Hollowed.
Hopeless.
2.
It only takes a whisper.
Somewhere in a billion miles of dark, cold space,
a little machine sends a ping, a fraction of light;
a hand still, reaches,
an eye frozen, blinks;
lungs grow with air.
A voice.
A song.
We with ethereal hope, rise;
We always rise
And to the greedy universe,
Not yet, we say.
Not yet.