Lacuna

when the aether evaporated
nature vacuumed abhorrently
bubbling foam, particles virtual
hurtling backward through time
existing but not now
the universe’s carpets are clean
as a whistle unheard with no medium
the nothing that grows
accumulating time, its very wake
∿ a sine from the heavens
void where prohibited
…the little matter of you…
look through boiling tears
feel with ballooning flesh
sucking in nothing
airlocked on the wrong side
of near-absolute zero

Author’s Biography

Jean-Paul L. Garnier is the owner of Space Cowboy Books bookstore and publishing house, producer of Simultaneous Times Podcast (2023/25 Laureate Award Winner, 2024 BSFA, Ignyte, and British Fantasy Award Finalist), and was the editor of the SFPA's Star*Line magazine from 2021-2025. He is also Editor-in-Chief of Electronic Brain magazine. In 2024 he won the Laureate Award for Best Editor. He has written many books of poetry and science fiction.