IN THIS BRIEF INTERVAL

By Ann K. Schwader

Ann K. Schwader is the author of six poetry collections: Twisted in Dream (Hippocampus Press, 2011), Wild Hunt of the Stars (Sam’s Dot Publishing, 2010), In the Yaddith Time (Mythos Books, 2007), Architectures of Night (Dark Regions Press, 2003), The Worms Remember (Hive Press, 2001), and Werewoman (Nocturnal Publications, 1990). Ann was a Bram Stoker Award nominee (for Wild Hunt of the Stars) in 2011, and received a Rhysling Award from the Science Fiction Poetry Association in 2010. She is an active member of HWA, SFWA and SFPA. A Wyoming native, she now lives and writes in Colorado, USA.

Before our sun first sparked, the stars turned right

Beyond some liminal apocalypse

To herald the return of elder night.

Sunk deep in ignorance we name ‘delight’,

Such cosmic truth will never stain our lips:

Before our sun first sparked, the stars turned right.

One Arab mystic dared describe that sight

Before he suffered sanity’s eclipse

To herald the return of elder night.

What matter all the rockets we ignite

To launch sleek probes or long-range sleeper ships?

Before our sun first sparked, the stars turned right.

Mundane events monopolize our fright,

Obscuring time’s frail fabric as it rips

To herald the return of elder night.

Dizzied by ascension to this height,

We never feel it when the balance tips.

Before our sun first sparked, the stars turned right

To herald the return of elder night.