In the Burned Places

By Ann K. Schwader

29 June 2009

In the burned places where light is ash

of slaughtered stars

where silence stiffens

to rigor mortis

where air is death

delayed too long for mercy

we wait in vain as we always have

for the aliens

or the seraphim

for Oppenheimer's optimal blossom

we wait in vain for the asteroid

its aeon come round at last.

In the burned places between our walls

of phantom data

between the winds

that blow contagion

between these minds

clenched tight on godspeak shrapnel

we search in vain as we seldom did

for the history

the hypothesis

for Ariadne's blood-red foresight

we search in vain for the enemy

inherent in our mirrors.

Copyright © 2009 Ann K. Schwader

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Ann K. Schwader lives, writes, and corgi-walks in Westminster, CO. Her Lovecraftian sonnet sequence In the Yaddith Time was published by Mythos Books in 2007. Her work has appeared in Mythic Delirium, Tales of the Unanticipated, Dark Wisdom, and elsewhere, and has received numerous Honorable Mentions in Year's Best Fantasy & Horror. She is a member of SFWA, HWA, and SFPA. You can find more of her work in our archives, in Strange Stars & Alien Shadows, Horrors Beyond, The Weird Sonneteers, and Architectures of Night, or on her website.

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