Prompt: PERIHELION BY TOBY MACNUTT For this comet’s path I chose it, carved itto be our temporary castle. In the act of openingI let its secrets leak out into the starlight,exposing this pocked and hissing water-iceas blue as your seven elder sisters.I shaped it to us till it shone. It is not terraformed(this is no earth) but transfigured: a chiselled, burnished fluid.You descend, shimmering darkly.The scent of you, of alien metals, diffusesinto my atmosphere of breath and frozen dust.And of desire: you, nebula-born, you empyrean beauty,I would see you nova-bright and radiant,pulsing, brilliant with every cosmic hue.Yet I have tumbled through so many skies,and found none to be your match. I have no stars to give.I hold out my empty hands. As solar wind strokes the ice-wallinto light, into life, my reaching fingers glitter with their gift:We are the void. (I touch your cheek.)We hold the stars already,and we burn, we burn.

Style: Line Art