"Proof that black holes mean lights out for wayward stars"
Rocky Mountain News, 2/19/04

Artist's conception of a galactic black holeNight jaws —
oblivion's
Great White incarnate waits
just outside its victim's wayward
orbit.

Off course
& out of luck,
ravaged by the riptide,
sun minnow struggles, gravity
gutted.

Blood flare
of X-rays fades
too slow for safety's sake:
long-range scanners signal massing
black fins.

Copyright © 2005, Ann K. Schwader

Ann K. Schwader's first collection of dark fiction, Strange Stars & Alien Shadows, was recently published by Lindisfarne Press. Her poetry has appeared in Tales of the Unanticipated, Mythic Delirium, The Magazine of Speculative Poetry, Strange Horizons, Modern Haiku, The Formalist, and elsewhere. She lives and writes in Westminster, CO. Visit her web site at: www.geocities.com/HPL4ever/.