WISHES
by Victoria Nations

I saw the sun sink into the ocean
and the water steamed up where it touched,
and though the ocean was large,
the sun was so much bigger.

I watched the sea boil away as
the sun kept sinking down,
and finally it sat balanced on the ocean floor.
A sheath of glass spread around it
until the sand gave way, brittle glass
breaking as the ocean fell,
sinking into the Earth, making
a smooth glassy tube
lit from within

My heart broke to see the sea creatures
boiled until there was nothing left,
the drifts of shells charred by the heat and
clacking together as they popped like corn
and shattered.

There was nothing in the darkness that fell
traveling down from the sky with the sun,
slamming into the bottom of the ocean.
The sand cooled and crackled in the dark.
I could sense the ocean canyons spread out before me,
But all I could see were stars overhead,
so many falling that everyone’s wishes
would come true before they hit us.