Ray saw the light on a Friday in the middle of a snow storm
Saw it over Farm to Market Road and thought it was a star
Then an airplane breaking the sound barrier
Or a space ship come to land on the silo
Come to check the silence in the under side of snow
She looked away just in time
Focused on the woman floating in her freezer
And wondered at the kindness in her eyes
A drop of sorrow ran down the frozen woman’s cheek
And landed on a pint of Rocky Road
Ray wanted to touch the drop with her finger
To rub it on the scar that ran along her own wrist
But it was easier to dig in the familiar
Easier to turn on the news and get down with Ben and Jer
A crooked spoon was halfway down her throat
Plunging satisfaction toward her belly
When she saw the light again
Saw it in the chicken coop across the yard
At first she only moved her eyes
As if caught in the act of forgetting who she was
Then it burst through the window in the kitchen
Bleached the cafe curtains, melted the refrigerator
Evaporated cleansers and scorched the teflon
Until all she could do was stand and behold
That night, in the desert, she felt the roughness of her bones
Felt them hers and not hers and prayed for some kind —
Please, God, any kind of rain
But the heavens were silent as the inside of a blizzard
So she walked until her hands became her feet
Until the needle factory closed for the night
And children played tiddlywinks in artificial wombs
She woke in a mirage of taffeta ribbons
The frozen woman waiting underneath an elm
Blinding nervous shadows with the kindness in her eyes
Ray went all jiggy inside and began to sink
Then she picked up her knees and threw them out the window
And touched the frozen woman on the cheek
The man on the news was getting all worked up about a Meltdown
His voice rising high enough to deafen dogs
Ray inhaled a breath of tears and turned him off
And as ash fell like snow on the last of the city
Ray kissed the frostbite from the frozen woman’s lips
And together they entered in silence
The heat at the heart of the NewClear Age.