Nebula by Adam Sedia

When my time has come
And helium
Weighs down on my exhausted core,
Spent from shedding light
Through the endless night
Until the fuel could last no more,

Let my light not fade
Nor my mass degrade,
Into a dwarf-star, cold and dim;
Nor may I collapse
To a hole that traps
All mass, all light to cross its rim.

No! Let my demise
Light up the skies
In awesome supernova burst,
My last energy Exploding free
To fly among the stars, dispersed;

And to leave behind
A wondrous sign,
A vast galactic cloud that beams
Opalescent hues
Of bright aqua blues,
Magentas, reds in wisps and streams.

Untold worlds shall know
When they glimpse the glow
Of that ethereal monument
That a star once shone
That, though now long-gone,
Forever decks the firmament.

Featured in Issue One of New Lyre Magazine