Something.

Something will be the last thing I see
The last thing you see
Maybe the back of our eyelids. Hopefully in a soft warm bed anchored by the hum of honey sweet familiar voices, we are lulled beyond and slip
Like a spoon into tea —
A lovely thought unless
In a flash, you’re burned. Flesh gone. Bones reduced to dust, all of you a human ant pile.
To be snatched so quick, no time to plan.
So let us set it now in advance (god forbid)
In that case,
Say we’re there and gone in the flash
of a camera lens
In that case,
give me sun glitter
May my eyes be trained to my right at the second of the strike
They’d be so dazzled, I wouldn’t have time to care
You wouldn’t either. Neither would they, the unwitting there, witnesses to our collective demise.
Brillitos, a mamá points in awe and whispers to her bebé
Mijo, mira, estos son brillitos
The okāsan would call them kirameki
Māma may delight in the bō guāng lín lín
In Korea, someone’s eomma marvels at the yunseul
And clutching a precious body tight, a new ‘um tells her Loujayn, fingers curled tight around her thumb how the girl was named for the lights that dance in the face of it all
Sparkling no matter
what is falling.

***

Special thanks to Threads user ftibraahim for starting a thread about Sun Glitter, and to rami961, _____.ric, forest_ocean_me, goodboyoreoo, jpetey122, and bretonana for generously sharing the translations for sun glitter in other languages.