9- Retrospect

Previous chapters

***

In retrospect,

the destruction of a planet

lasts an instant.

In the moment,

the destruction

occurs

as a slow

peeling apart

of mountain

from valley,

as an unending

barrage

of raining

boulders,

a wave

of heat and fire

from the meteorite

impact

steadily

creeping

clos

er

as a tsunami

and in that approach

your brain has time

to think silly things like,

“Sue Nami.

Who is Nami,

and why is she

being sued?

Maybe I’ll sue her

for throwing this meteoroid

at me,

there’s no evidence

to say she didn’t do it,

if any existed,

it’s all burning

before my eyes.”

In retrospect,

you can zoom in

on the hairsbreadth

gap

that existed

at one point

between your lips

and the inferno

and analyze

how many doodles

you could fit between

the shape of your body

and the waver of the heat,

and think about

if the heat-waver technically

makes up the edge of the inferno

or if the first edge of yellow glow does

or if the brightest wall of light does,

but in the moment

that the approaching tsunami

landed

you probably just flinched

and didn’t think about anything,

not even the fact

that you weren’t thinking about anything

but now you are thinking

that

nobody stood on the planet

that’d be silly

cuz the planet

was part of me

so just don’t think too hard

about the metaphor

or it won’t make sense

just think about

tsuingnami

then flinch

and it’ll all be over

for you to over-

analyze.