8 Minutes of Sunlight, by James J. Stevenson

It’s a romantic notion
that when the Sun burns out
Earth will still have light
for eight minutes while our star’s
final rays travel 150 000 000 km
to your wine glass;
for that I applaud your idealism,
but before imploding
the Sun will expand and consume
the inner planets, and our carbon,
reborn in blue spruce, will brighten
sunlight for eight minutes
(as romantic as you hoped)
on Jupiter.

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My poems, stories, and comics have been published in a bunch of anthologies and journals, but the quickest way to see what I’m up to is @writelightning on most social media. I frequently post haiku+photography (often of my Star Wars action figures…) with over 400 in my archive. All my social media links are at writewithlightning.com