Brunch at the All Alien Cafe

It's Avian Night at the All Alien Café
Feathers and wings in a crowded display
Everyone's talking storms and nests
While I sit alone, a silent guest
I sip my drink, I laugh on cue
But my mind is drifting to a world I knew
Grassberries warm in my hatch-mother's kitchen
From a world I left behind

I'm a little red avian alien
Living in borrowed air
Dreaming of shared plates and kitchens
And someone waiting there

I ask my friend with scales of green
To fly me across the void
She flicks her tongue and says, "Too busy"
I smile and stay annoyed
I ask the keeper of the trees
To let me plant one seed
He wants an ecosystem first
So I buy a pot and leave

I'm a little red avian alien
With seeds held in my feathered hands
If no one wants to help them grow
I'll grow them however I can

On a metal world so cold and wide
Trying to grow a piece of home inside

So I planted the vines in a room of my own
Watching leaves climb up the wall of stone
Work got busy, lunches faded
My hope for the feast became jaded and deflated
I asked for help to cook and care
But they all said no, leaving me standing there
Maybe I’m asking wrong, maybe I don’t belong
Or maybe I was always singing a solitary song

On a metal world so cold and wide
Trying to grow a piece of home inside

Table set for too many plates
I can’t eat this joy alone
I wonder if the problem’s me
Or living so far from home…
Then the door chimes – bright and clear
Footsteps, voices – friends, wine and cheer!
Different gifts in different hands
Everyone here, just not how I planned

And that's all that matters in the end
Being together with my friends

Aevian Night at the Alien bar
I'm just a mouse, but I’ve traveled far
The Ululu sneers with his beak held high
"You can't come with us to the Jupiter sky."
The feathers ruffle, the laughter rings
"Winged folk only! You don't have wings!"
I jumped off the stool and I walked away
But I’m gonna crash their holiday

I don’t belong by default
I belong by choice
All your cawing and squawking
Won't drown out my voice
Winged folk only — that’s what you said
So I'll fly with mechanical wings instead

I don't have feathers, I don't have flight
But I’ve got a plan for the gas giant's night
Aluminum bones and a canvas span
Built by a robot, designed by a human
I’m strapping them on, I’m jumping in
This is a game that a mouse can win!
(Winged folk only? Yeah, right!)

Five weeks later on the shuttle deck
I walked right past the security check
The airlock opened to the orange cloud
I stood at the edge of the winged crowd
The Ululu looked at my rig with a scornful stare
"That heavy metal won't float on air."
But I didn't listen, I didn't wait
I jumped right out of the shuttle gate!

Music slows down, becomes tense and "falling"

Flapping my arms with a desperate might
Falling like a stone in the orange light
Gravity pulling, the wind rushing past
I knew my strength wouldn't last
Thump! I landed on a feathered back
The Ululu caught me before I cracked

"Don't flap," he said, "Just ride the breeze."
"Tilt your wings and glide with ease."
He shook me off — I caught the wind
Spiraled out and back again
Not a bird, just a mouse with gear
Flying without a single fear

Winged folk only — side by side
Different wings, the same wide sky
Not a bird, not a plane, just a mouse with gear
Flying without a single fear

Winged folk only? Well, I guess I am.
I don’t belong by default
I belong by choice
Now when the winged folk sing
You'll hear my squeaking voice

I drifted from the flock
Down where the clouds turn gold to brown
My friends have stronger wings
But I've got dampeners for the lightning grounds
A purple nimbus bloomed below
Flashing violet, flashing bright
They couldn't follow me down there
So I folded my wings and dove into the night

Go high! Go high!
The fish in the cloud has a galaxy eye
Go high! Go high!
Or live a whole lifetime before you die

The static prickled against my fur
The world became a violet blur
Then shapes appeared in the electric dark
Moving between the lightning sparks
Frilly fins and translucent skin
A fish as big as a shuttle
With eyes I could see myself in

It opened its mouth and it spoke to me
"Go high," it said, "if you want to be free."

Go high! Go high!
The fish in the cloud has a galaxy eye
Go high! Go high!
Or live a whole lifetime before you die

I looked in its eye and I fell inside
Back to the home where my ancestors died
I lived a life on the mouse-world ground
Raised a family without a sound
A hundred years in a single glance
Trapped in a psycho-active trance!
(The fish is watching! The fish is me!)
(Am I the mouse or the memory?)

Go high
I choose the present moment
Go high
I choose this single breath
I don’t need to live forever now
I just want the life I have left

Go high
I burst back into daylight
Clear sky washing through my mind
Some things are better left unshared
Some truths are only mine

They ask if I was swallowed whole
By Jupiter’s glowing sea
I tilt my wings and say, “Maybe”
And keep what happened to me
For only me

One of me here
One of me there
Most of me fluttering in the air

Half of me hides in the ductwork dark
One of me flies by the dock, checking our mark
Counting moments, holding tight
Until it's time to make our flight

We hitch a ride to the depths of space
Ten percent of me died, just getting to this place
Still don't know if that was smart
But I've seen more now than a single planet could ever impart

One of me here
One of me there
Most of me fluttering in the air

You talk with meat inside your mouths
Instead of dancing, sharing sounds
Strange but it works, I learn it fast
All this risk is worth one chance

Part of me says: hide and grow
Eat myself, survive the wait
Another part says: move, adapt
Be more than merely safe

Mimicry’s an ancient art
Worn by winners long ago
So I gather all my bodies
Into something familiar — something you'll know

I am Mazillion
Watch me hold this borrowed shape
Feet of many, arms of swarms
Straining not to dissipate

One of me here
One of me there
All of me fluttering together in the air

I choose cohesion
I choose to stay
I choose this strange, strange dance
I choose to copy you and be this way

I'm a biped now, whaddaya think?
Buy a million, tiny thirsty souls
A nice, cold, sugary drink?

I stack the crates the way he wants
Then the way he wants again
If he’d used the words he meant to use
We’d already be at the end

My spines twitch once — I lock them down
I’ve practiced this a lot
You call it patience
I call it not

You look at me like you can see it
Like my thoughts are written wide
Relax — I’ve studied humans
You’re not psychic, you just try

These are hidden feelings
Neatly packed away
I don’t bare my teeth at work
I don’t give the game away

You keep saying what you picture
Like that makes it mine
Funny how you fear my anger
While I’m guarding yours the whole time

You say I look like something fierce
A dragon from your myths
You say you keep imagining
Me snapping bones and wrists

I tilt my head and calmly say
“That sounds like stress to me”
Violent thoughts and low-grade dread
Come with your human biology

These are hidden feelings
Behind professional restraint
I lift twice what you can lift
And still don’t make a complaint

You narrate every nightmare
Like it’s observational truth
I just smile with all my teeth
And let the medi-bot talk to you

(Blue light)
(Green light)
(Please comply)

I watch you leave
I don’t ask why

These are hidden feelings
Filed where no one looks
I know every rule about restraint
I wrote the book

You worry what I might be thinking
Because you can’t see inside
Good.
Some things are safer
When they’re
Unverified

Crates are stacked
The bay is clear
Your footsteps fade away

My talons flex
Just once
Alone

But I don’t say a word
I don't have to say it
I just know

I don't know why humans bring their young on ships
My species leaves our grubs in caves
But here I am, cataloging rocks
While the captain's larva misbehaves

She wants to know if I breathe fire
She kicks the hatch and screams
I want to claw her little face off
But I need this job, it seems

I gave her art supplies
She painted on my screen
I roared at her in fury
She clapped like it's a dream
"Now breathe fire!" she demanded
I cannot win this game
I need to find a way
To put this child's chaos in a frame

Have you ever played spacers and dragons?
First, put on your suit
Then you hide in the airlock
From the dragon in pursuit
The airlock is so cozy
Like a cave for little grubs
I'll seal you safe inside it
Isn't this game fun?

She climbed right in, all on her own
I sealed the hatch up tight
I cycled out the atmosphere
She didn't even fight
Not until the outer door
Swung open to the black
She started screaming then
But I was not turning back

"There's nothing to fear," I told her
"I'll be back in an hour or so
You're very well hidden from dragons out here
Among the asteroids' glow"
I turned the speakers down
Let her tantrum float in space
Finally, some silence
Finally, some grace

Have you ever played spacers and dragons?
It's my favorite game
You hide among the asteroids
And I finish my work in peace
Children don't need field trips
They need quiet caves to grow
And if you don't have a cave—
Well
A spacesuit will do
You know

Green skin deep, a shallow disguise
I looked for the truth in her flower eyes
I thought we were sisters of chlorophyl and scale
But I was just the monster in her fairy tale
(Chime, chime, the bells ring false)
(Dancing alone to a poisonous waltz)

She sat down at my table
The first who ever did
Pink petals, green leaves
She said, "We're alike, you and me"

The humans call me dragon
They joke about my food
But Trinth said she understood
And I believed her — I was in the mood

She said the ship was too hot
So I snuck in and turned it down
She said she needed ion bulbs
I stole them, never made a sound
She said her language was a burden
So I learned to understand her chimes
She said her water wasn't enough
So I gave her half of mine

Green skin deep, a shallow disguise
I looked for the truth in her flower eyes
I thought we were sisters of chlorophyl and scale
But I was just the monster in her fairy tale
(Chime, chime, the bells ring false)
(Dancing alone to a poisonous waltz)

A new plant came aboard at Crossroads
Blue flowers, darker leaves
They spoke in bells and wind chimes
And I understood everything
"I've been so lonely here," Trinth sang
"Everyone is brutally dismal"
The blue one looked at me and asked,
"You work with a stupid lizard?"

Trinth's leaves wrung together
And she laughed like silverware
"At least the lizard's stupid—
I've tricked her into giving me her share"

Green skin deep, a shallow disguise
I looked for the truth in her flower eyes
I thought we were sisters of chlorophyl and scale
But I was just the monster in her fairy tale
(Chime, chime, the bells ring false)
(Dancing alone to a poisonous waltz)

I walked out of the cargo bay
My scales spiked down my spine
I passed by engineering
And I knew just what was mine
I turned the thermostat to high
And then I broke the dial
It'll take a week to fix
And I hope she wilts the whole while

Our similarity was only ever skin deep
Just the color green
She can wither in the heat now
And I'll never let myself be seen
That naive
That hungry for a friend
Again

I stopped by the incubator every day
Watched the shadows dance inside
Translucent eggs in careful rows
Angular and leggy, waiting to arrive
The robot said don't touch the settings
The buyer wants them just like this
But I could see them slowing down
Something was amiss

I turned the dials until they danced again
Then hid the crate beneath my bed
Told the captain it was rotting
Told her I'd space it instead
She didn't even look at me
Too busy with her maps
Let Greecha dock my paycheck
I don't care about all that

Now there's gossamer rainbows in my room
Silken threads from wall to wall
Diamond eyes and mother-of-pearl
Tiny feet that know my call

I sang to them in my native tongue
The humans say it sounds like dying frogs
But the babies swung on silver threads
And settled on my shoulder like they belonged
They wove a shawl across my scales
Soft as the caves back home
For the first time on this ship
I didn't feel alone

Gossamer rainbows, silken threads
And many, many tiny feet

They greet me when my shift ends
Swinging eager through the air
They dance when I laugh
They chase each other everywhere
The humans say my laugh sounds wrong
Like a lizard with a cough
But the spiders clap their tiny feet
And that's enough
More than enough

Gossamer rainbows, silken threads
And many, many tiny feet

The buyer came, a furry bear
Growling for his crate
"Fermented eggs are a delicacy—
You've ruined them, it's too late!"
I could have told him they're alive
Could have cleared my name
But I slipped out of the cargo bay
And let the robot take the blame

Now there's gossamer rainbows in my room
Silken threads I'll never break
Diamond eyes that see me true
Friends I didn't mean to make
Let them dock my pay
Let them call me thief
I've befriended a hundred tiny feet
That bring me peace
More than peace

Gossamer rainbows, silken threads
And many, many tiny feet

I sing to them in guttural tones
They settle on my spines
Gossamer rainbows, silken threads
And many, many tiny feet

"Do you ever miss your home worlds?"
The Heffen asked the bar
His ears were flat, his drink untouched
His eyes on somewhere far
The fish said, "Home's the only place I can't fly"
The lizard hissed, "Dirtballs are for savages; I prefer the sky"
But I just watched him hurt
And wished that I could bandage it

I mentioned camping in the forests
Where I was a joey once
The whistling trees, the purple flowers
The stars I used to want
The Srellik sighed and said she'd take us
Though she swore she didn't care
Four aliens in a cargo ship
Headed somewhere

We built a fire in the clearing
Where I used to dream of space
Now all I dream of is the Heffen
Finally seeing my face
The trees whistle only at night
They go quiet before dawn
I've been whistling for years now
Wondering if he'd sing along

He sat beside the lake alone
While the others swam and climbed
I showed him caves, I picked him berries
He barely met my eyes
"Why don't you stay?" he asked me, angry
"You have a home—I don't"
I touched his paw and whispered
"My home isn't a planet anymore"

He stomped off through the forest
Too hurt to hear me say
The thing I couldn't tell him
With him looking at my face:
"My home is you"

I woke up wrapped in red fur
Afraid to move or breathe
Afraid to break the spell of him
Finally holding me
He touched his muzzle to my neck
Asked what I wanted to do
On my last day on my home world
I said, "Spend it with you"

We walked through whistling forests
I showed him everything I knew
Not because I'd miss this planet
But because I wanted him to see me too
Home isn't where you came from
Home isn't what you lost
Home is who you curl around
When the fire's turned to dust

The Srellik said, "Three months from now
I'll have time for another trip"
The Lintar laughed, "I knew you liked it"
And I felt the Heffen's arms hold tight
Next time, we'll see the Lintar's world
All of us in breathing gear
Four aliens from across the galaxy
Who somehow ended up here
Together
That's home
That's home

The airlock filled with water
Rising past our feet
Three helmets going on
And one coming off
I watched my Lintar friend
Shed his bubble for the first time
In all the years I've known him
I'd never seen his whole face

He shot out like blue lightning
Into the kelp and the crowds
Tentacles and shells and fins
Swimming through the water clouds
We splashed and splayed behind him
Fur dragging, tails swaying
Pathetic landlocked mammals
In a world without a down

Ob'glaung hangs like a dewdrop
In the dark between the stars
Inside, it's a giant pond
And every way is up
He wanted us to see it
The place where he began
But when we asked "What's happens next?"
He didn't have a plan

"There's a reason I left here," he said
"I never quite fit in"
I couldn't help but giggle:
"A fish out of water?" I said with a grin
He didn't laugh, just looked at us
Three friends in diving gear
Floating awkward, faces hidden
"This is how I look to you," he said
"All the time, year after year"

He swam back to the airlock
Fetched his helmet from the waves
Clipped it to his harness
Like a piece of who he's made
He didn't put it on
But he kept it close
The thing he thought had hidden him
Had become part of his home

We floated through his childhood
Four aliens, three in bubbles
He showed us where he came from
But that's not where he lives
Home isn't where you fit in
Home isn't where you're born
Home is who you float beside
When you're feeling worn

"Let's go explore together," we said
And so we did
A lizard, a wolf, a koala, and a fish
None of us quite belonged here
But all of us belonged
To this

Touched down on Asteroid eight-three-five
Charred metal skeleton, nothing alive
Chorif puffed her feathers, claimed the prize
But I saw the hunger in her copper eyes
"We'll split it," I said, "Fifty-fifty share."
Scavenging the ghost of the vessel there
Looking for tech, looking for gear
Something to sell for some credits or beer

One alien's wreckage is another's gain
Sifting through the ashes in the cosmic rain
You dig for the gold, you dig for the parts
But this time I found a beating heart

Salvage rights, finders keepers
Digging deeper, digging deeper

We cracked the seal on the cryo-pod
Chorif let out a squawk, feeling odd
"Just a larva," she said with a dismissive sneer
"Dump it out, let's get the hardware clear."
But I looked at the green and squirming thing
A tragic survivor, a lonely offspring
"It's a kid," I said, "An orphan now."
And I wiped the sweat from my dusty brow

I commed the station, asked for a name
"Unregistered species, no one to claim."
"Fosterage or salvage, it's up to you."
"Pass the exams and you'll make do."
Chorif laughed, thought my plan had failed
But I looked at the baby that I had unveiled

One alien's wreckage is another's gain
Sifting through the ashes in the cosmic rain
You dig for the gold, you dig for the parts
But this time I found a beating heart

Salvage rights, finders keepers
Digging deeper, digging deeper

I picked up the bundle, heavy and warm
Safe from the vacuum and the solar storm
You're going to be beautiful
When you grow your wings
I don't know how to raise a caterpillar
But together, we'll figure out everything
I sing you lullabies like a solemn vow
One alien's wreckage…
Is my treasure now.

Three great wheels in the velvet dark
Turning dreams like a question mark
Windows stacked a thousand high
Against the canvas of the eternal sky
I’ve served a throne my whole small life
Carved from worry with a silver knife
But the stars just kept on widening
Past the edge of where I was hiding

I thought importance wore a heavy crown
Pressing all the little people down
But then the airlock hissed and sighed
And the universe was waiting right outside

In the crowds on Crossroads Station
I find my own salvation
No one here is watching me
Anonymity is the key
Faces flow like a neon river
A thrill that makes my whiskers shiver
I’ve never felt so small before
But I don't have to serve her throne anymore

Feathers brushing against green scales
A comet's dust, and travelers' tale
Languages collide and blend
Every stranger is a potential friend
She points and says, “That one’s my peer”
But what she's seeing simply isn't here
The human is just a passerby
Under the artificial sky

Power looks different in the street
It’s the rhythm of a million feet
And suddenly her crown feels heavy
When the crowd breaks around us like a levee

In the crowds on Crossroads Station
I find my own salvation
No one here is watching me
And anonymity is the key
Faces flow like a neon river
A thrill that makes my whiskers shiver
I’ve never felt so small before
But I won't serve her throne anymore

I look back once, then forward twice
Freedom has a scary price
I thought I knew what “important” meant
Thought hierarchy was part of fate
Then the universe opened a door
And didn’t check my rank

In the crowds on Crossroads Station
A beautiful, chaotic creation
I don't need to wave goodbye
I just step into the flow and fly
Not with wings, but with my feet
Joining the rhythm of the station beat!

We found the Quejon's ship
Crashed on a rogue, dark world
Her cargo hold was full of gems
Opals and gold, silver and pearls
Chorif draped the jewels across her wings
And wore a tiara on her feathered down
I slipped bracelets over my long ears
Like a king who'd won his crown

"I always wanted to try these on,"
I said to her with a grin
"The Quejon never let you?" she asked
"I never dared to ask back then"
I told her how I'd been uplifted
From feral stock, kept low
My people made to serve forever
By those who'd helped us grow

But then she told me, "Pack it up"
I couldn't believe my ears
"Pack it up, we're turning it in"
She clacked her beak, "For a fraction of its worth, I fear"
"But we could be rich!" I objected
She tilted her feathered head and said
"My reputation costs more than gems"

swirling instrumental solo

"You really trust this place?" I asked
As we walked into the crowds
She gestured with her upper wings
At the noise, the bustle, the loud
"No," she chirped, "but this is where I live
And working with them beats the rest
No amount of being rich somewhere else
Is better than a home
Where I can truly rest"

I'm not sure I agree with her
I haven't been here long
But something in the way she said it
Made me think I could belong

A cynical bird who loves this place
Enough to give up gold
Maybe home is worth protecting
Maybe… That's what I've been told

Principles over profit
That's what she chose today
Not because she had to
But because she wanted to stay
And maybe that's what home means
Not a place you're forced to be
But a place worth keeping you honest
A place that's better than being free

We walked into the crowded dock
Feathered and furred, side by side
She carried the crate of someone else's treasure
I carried something new inside
Hope
That maybe I could love a place
Enough to turn down gold
That maybe I could love a place
Enough to call it home

My ears won't stand up straight
My reflection looks afraid
I've stared at this dark screen for hours
Trying to feel brave
Three years since I disappeared
Into the Crossroads crowd
Now I'm back above my homeworld
And I have to say it loud

Her face filled up the screen
The High Royal Quejon
Black eyes like collapsing stars
The one I used to belong to
"You are dead to me," she spat
"Runaway bunny, you're nothing"
But she looked smaller than I remembered
And my voice rises, though my heart is thumping

I am free from you
And I've come back for more
I'm not buying anyone
I'm opening a door
One hundred names, I sent her
Every friend, every kin
"I'm offering free transport
To anyone who wants a new place to begin"

She said I had no standing
Said she'd never let them go
But I knew about the treaty
The law she tried to dodge three years ago
I watched her realize she was cornered
And I felt a vicious calm

"We uplifted you!" she shrieked
"You were feral, you were nothing!
You owe us, you belong to us!"
Her fists were shaking, clutching
But I didn't flinch
I didn't bow
I said, "Not according to interstellar law"

Her face went sour and dark
Then the screen went black
A moment later, my cousin appeared
Another rabbit, looking back
"I'm told I have arrangements to make?"
She looked confused but bright
I said, "Let me tell you about my home—
I think you'll like the sight"

Crossroads Station is waiting
Three spinning wheels in the black
I ran away alone three years ago
Now I'm bringing everyone back
My ears are standing tall
For the first time in my life
I faced the face of my nightmare
And wielded justice like a knife

Hauling crates all day, drinking alone at night
Watching the crowds go by in the neon light
I tried to say hello to a sentient tree
But he had better things to do than talk to me
Every species you could dream walking through that door
But none of them are mine, and I'm keeping score
Of all the days since I've felt someone lean in close

Fifty lightyears from home
Strong back, empty room
I left to see the stars
Now I'm longing for a familiar moon
But maybe tonight
Something changes in the air
A dozen strangers walk in
And I pull up a chair
They hopped in laughing, talking fast
A hundred lives and whispered plans
I straightened up my shoulders, brown and furred
A lonely buffalo looking for a herd

They didn't invite me in, I just grabbed a seat
Said "I love family conferences" like we were old friends meeting
They looked at me like I was crazy, maybe I am
But lonely makes you brave when you don't give a damn
And their long ears look like horns if you squint just right

Fifty lightyears from home
Big quarters, just for one
They said I needed space
But space ain't any fun
So I opened my mouth
Said "you can stay with me"
The noses stopped twitching, the room went still
Then a tiny paw reached out to seal the deal
Hand in hoof, we made a pact
I found a new herd; ain't no turning back.

You can't go back to small
Once you've seen it all
But you can build a herd
From whoever answers the call

He said "you found yourself a family"
I said "believe me, it's my honor"
Fifty lightyears from home
And I'm finally not alone

Ten minutes of silence
And the air went still
Stars pressed hard on the window
Like they meant us ill
Fifteen small heartbeats
Hopping wild and free
In a dark that was never
Meant for someone like me

So I tied us together with yarn and hope
Loop by loop, hand to hand
If the lights go out in space tonight
I’ll lead you where I can
Stay close, count the ears
Don’t let go, don’t race
We’ll walk through this blackout
At a steady pace

A buffalo trailing baby rabbits in the black
Feeling for the walls, no looking back

Down the halls, one soft glow
Stars too bright to ignore
Strangers talking like neighbors
Never did before
Storms and pulses, one in a million
Nobody really knows
Funny how the dark can teach you
What already shows

When there’s nowhere left to run to
And no switch you can pull
All that’s left is standing still
And choosing whether to be kind or cruel

So I tied us together with yarn and hope
Through the hum and the fear
If the universe holds its breath tonight
We’ll breathe right here
No engines, no escape
Just time and space
Turns out a blackout
Can soften a place

The merchants gave away their melting treats
Strangers talked like neighbors in the street
I finally let the terror leave my chest
While the little ones played with all the rest

If the lights go out in space again
I won’t pretend I’m brave
But I’ll carry what I’m able
And guard what can’t be saved
No regrets, no grand sign
No meaning to chase
Just being here together
In a fragile place

There’s a robot pacing past my window
Stops, turns, stops again
Metal feet on a baker’s floor
Like it’s nervous to come in
Robots don’t need sugar
Don’t dream in layers and cream
So why’s it staring at my cake
Like something it desperately needs

Green frosting, no— blue— no— green
Eight tiers is as high as it goes
For something built from circuits
You’re awfully slow to know
Exactly what you want from this gateau

Who buys cake if they can’t taste it?
Such a waste to let beauty get stale
Does it tantalize you?
In spite of metal numbness
To flavors so delicate and frail?

Never mind, I’ll bake it all
Tall and bright and colorful
Let the sugar crystals gleam
Some things don’t need a reason
To be sweet
To simply be

I roll it down the corridor
On a humming anti-gravity tray
The door slides open just enough
Then the cake quietly slips away
No answers, no explanations
Just a closed and silent room
Some mysteries are meant to sit
And never be consumed

Who buys cake if they can’t taste it?
Such a waste to let beauty get stale
Does it tantalize you?
In spite of metal numbness
To flavors so delicate and frail?

Then I feel it in my pocket
A sugary confection shaped like a sphere
I forgot to place the decorative planet
On the topmost tier
I knock once more, the door gives way
And changes everything
Some things don’t need a language
To know exactly what they mean

The robot’s just a mecha
An empty metal shell
Inside, a city celebrates
A story I can’t tell
Tiny lives and tiny dances
On a mansion made of cake
A planet made of chocolate
For these mouse-like aliens' sake

Sometimes joy just needs a vessel
Sometimes love is very small
I set the confectionary planet in its place
They cheer, I back away
I played my part in their celebration
When I baked and delivered
Their world-sized cake

I don’t know their names or words
But I know what I’ve seen
The universe is full of mouths
That hunger differently
Tomorrow I’ll bake another cake
I don't know who that one will feed

Rainbow scales under the spotlight
A thousand faces in the dark
They want the dragon on their holo-screens
Not a tired thing, losing her spark
I rake my hide and let the scales like petals fall
Little pieces they can keep
Souvenirs of someone shining
While I'm barely on my feet

The Robo-weilers growl a warning
But it's just a little girl
Spikes along her back like needles
Each one catching light like pearls
She's decorated herself in my scales
A tiny disco ball of dreams
Looking up at me like I'm the sun
Like I'm still what I used to be

I’m the Celestial Rainbow Dragon!
Watch me glitter, watch me shine
I’m shedding all my colors, leaving everything behind
I’m the Celestial Rainbow Dragon
Burning in the spotlight's glare
But is there anybody real out there?

She says her name is Galaxy Shaker
And she's gonna be just like me
She knows every word, every move
Moving more smoothly than I know how to be
So I hold the mic out to her
And she doesn't wait for me to start
It's far from a perfect performance
But our duet overflows with heart

Her squeaky voice drowns out my vibrato
Her dance moves don't quite match
A spiky ball beside a dragon
But the crowd has never screamed like that
She wraps her arms around my knees
And I grin with all my teeth
For a moment I'm not tired
For a moment I believe

I’m the Celestial Rainbow Dragon!
Watch me glitter, watch me shine
I’m shedding all my colors, leaving everything behind
I’m the Celestial Rainbow Dragon
Burning in the spotlight glare
But tonight, the stage is something I can share

They came to see the artifact
The perfect thing from every screen
But what they got was better—
A little girl who loved to sing
And maybe that's what I forgot
Underneath the lights and fame
Before my scales became souvenirs
I used to feel the same

I whisper, "You can sing with me anytime"
Then I scream it to the crowd
"The first ever performance of Galaxy Shaker!"
And her little face is proud
She might have to work up to galaxies
But tonight this asteroid shakes
Sometimes the spark you're looking for
Is one that only someone else can make

I’m the Celestial Rainbow Dragon!
Watch me glitter, watch me shine
I’m shedding all my colors, leaving everything behind
I’m the Celestial Rainbow Dragon
Burning in the spotlight glare
But tonight I met someone who more than outshines my flare

Rainbow scales fall like petals
But I'm not shedding anymore
I found what I was missing
In a little girl who knew my score

Yeah, she’s the Galaxy Shaker! (Galaxy Shaker!)
And I’m the Star Shaker! (Star Shaker!)
We’re shaking the stars tonight.
Work up to the galaxies, kid.
Yeah, shake it, shake it right.

I shaved my fur off as a kitten
Drew little Vs across my skin
I looked ridiculous but I didn't care
I just wanted to feel like her
Tonight I'm finally in the same air
Real sound waves, her forked tongue to my pointed ear
Everything feels right when she's singing
Everything I want is here

music swells, instrumental solo

The encore ends, the lights go down
Everyone is filing out
But I stay sitting, clutching my bag
Not ready to let go of this
I made cookies, star-shaped, sugared bright
The way I've baked them all my life
Maybe if I see her, I could give her one
A small thing for everything she's done

Never meet your heroes, that’s what they always say
But I didn't listen
And now I'm watching all the sparkles turn to dust and blow away

Because heroes are smaller without the spotlight
Silver-gray, not rainbow-scaled
And the moment I'd been dreaming of
Arrived and instantly failed
"What is this feline doing here"
She said it like I was in her way
Her Roboweiler snarled, I tripped and fell
And she walked away

Never meet your heroes, that’s what they always say
But I didn't listen
And now I'm watching her walk away

I'm splayed out on the amphitheater floor
Tail crimped, ears askew
Cookie crumbled in my paw
Dignity in pieces too
By the time I found my feet again
She was gone into the dark
And I keep reliving it over and over—
The moment that broke my heart

Never meet your heroes, would've been a good place to start

It's not that she was cruel
She barely even saw me there
I was just an obstacle
As irrelevant as an empty chair
But I'd carried her voice inside me
Since I was small enough to dream
And now I can't imagine hearing it
Without remembering the horror of this scene

Never meet your heroes, that’s what they always say
But I didn't listen
And now all the sugar's turned to dust and blowing away

I don't think I'll bake that recipe again
At least not for a while
I don't think I'll play her music either
Until I can forget my hopeful smile
Breaking on the floor

The stars still stretch out all around
But my world has gotten small
Nothing sounds right anymore
Nothing sounds right
At all

Your petals brush against my face
Your twigs wrapped in my hands
I've loved you since I first saw you bloom
A living bouquet, a queen of lands
You love me too—or so I thought
A safe green place to rest
An outsider with no opinion
No stake in your conquest

I tried so hard to stay uninvolved
Refused the wand three times
But then you walked me through the nursery
And I heard the sproutlings' chimes
They sang of you, they sang of us
Your amphibious royal consort, your love
And I realized they were sentient
These seedlings you'd burned the fields of

Do you love me?
Can you hear me at all?
Or am I just the place you rest
Before you let the firelands fall?
I'm pressing the trigger now
Not because I've chosen a side
But because I can't watch you burn children
And pretend I haven't died inside

The shimmer holds you like a bubble
Your branches shake with rage
How dare I trap you, how dare I question
How dare I turn this page
"Can't" is not a word for queens
You turn your roses away
And I'm still asking if you love me
While your leaves fall in decay

Somewhere the viceroy is uprooting sproutlings
Arming them for civil war
It isn't my war, it was never my war
I only had one reason to be here
And now I'm not sure anymore

Do you love me?
You won't even say
I lower the wand but leave you trapped
And I turn to walk away
The shuttle's waiting, the system's burning
I'll be running for a long, long time
But I'll be heartbroken even longer
For crossing this line

You were color and splendor
Everything right with the universe
Wonder of wonders, you loved me back
But some wonders turn to curse
I couldn't stay uninvolved
I couldn't look away
Some loves only survive
When you have nothing to say

He tried three tables before he sat at the bar
Bulgy eyes looking nervous, like he’d traveled too far
He stared at his reflection, mottled and green
The saddest amphibian I’ve ever seen
I asked for his name, and he hesitated long
He said, "Uh… Stanley," and I knew it was wrong
But I poured him a mixture of gray and smoke
And we talked all night until the silence broke

He said, "I loved her with everything
Every fiber of my being
When her flowers chimed my name
It was enough to send me reeling
But I crossed a line to save some lives
And now I'm on the run
Will you come with me somewhere?
I can't do this alone"

We walked through the market, past the junk and the toys
You told me of the sproutlings and the terrible noise
You loved a flower lady with a voice like a bell
But she turned into a fire, straight from the depths of hell
Now you sleep behind the generator in the zero-G
Saying, "I need to change, will you come with me?"
You held my hand tight, skin smooth and warm
Ready to step into a brand new form

Clarity is not forgiveness
It’s not knowing you’re okay
It’s choosing who you are tonight
And letting yesterday decay

Welcome to the Genie Shop, a black market trade
Where the memories keep, but the features fade
You’re running from a war, running from a Queen
Hiding inside of a brand new being
Oh, Stanley, who are you gonna be?

The antlered alien pulled the curtain aside
He said, "No refunds on the place where you hide"
You looked at me with those big liquid eyes
And asked me to choose your perfect disguise
I didn’t want to lose you, but I made the choice
To give you red fur and a brand new voice.

Three weeks, he said, three weeks
And then I walked out in a daze
I'd spent days making a friend
Who was about to be erased
I watched every Heffen after that
Looking for his slumped shoulders, his eyes
But the person I was looking for
Had already said goodbye

He'd gone to the Genie Shop, a black market trade
Where the memories keep, but the features fade
He was running from a war, running from a Queen
Hiding inside of a brand new being
Oh, Stanley, who are you gonna be?

A melodic, transformative solo

Clarity is not forgiveness
It’s not knowing you’re okay
It’s choosing who you are tonight
And letting yesterday decay

Three weeks later, a Heffen walked in
With perky ears and a red-furred skin
He laid a paw on my hand, and I felt the world spin
I looked in his eyes, and saw you within
He said, "I don't have a name yet." "Will you pick it for me?"

He'd trusted me with everything
His body, his disguise
Now he's trusting me to name him
To give his new self life

Oh, Stanley, I'll help you choose who to be
I'll give you clarity

I opened my eyes and my heart beat fast
Running from the Queen, running from the past
I reached for my face to wipe the sleep away
But the skin wasn't green, and the hands were gray
No, they were red, and covered in fur
I’m looking at a paw, but I’m not sure who we were
A white-feathered bird leaned over the bed
"You’ve been here three weeks," is what she said
"You were a frog, and now you’re a fox"
"You paid the price for opening a Genie's box"

They said I paid to be forgotten
Said I asked to start again
Funny how escape feels empty
When you don’t know where you’ve been

I’m waking up in the Genie Shop
With a short-term memory that had to stop
I don't remember the last few days
Just a fuzzy static in a purple haze
Am I Sloanee? Am I Stan?
I’m a brand new creature in a brand new plan
Oh, I need a name to understand

She said I came in with a human friend
A bartender girl with me up until the end
I walked out the door through the curtained room
Leaving behind the medical gloom
My tail is swishing, my ears turn round
I’m a common face in a crowded town
I’m disappearing, fading to black
The old memories aren't coming back

They said I paid to be forgotten
Said I asked to start again
Funny how escape feels empty
When you don’t know where you’ve been

But my feet knew the way to the neon sign
To the All Alien Cafe and the smoky wine
I saw her working behind the bar
A pink-skinned girl, a familiar star
I don't remember the words we said
Just a feeling of warmth inside my fuzzy head

A soulful, melodic electric guitar solo that builds in intensity

I’m waking up in the Genie Shop
With a short-term memory that had to stop
I don't remember the last few days
Just a fuzzy static in a purple haze
Am I Sloanee? Am I Stan?
I’m a brand new creature in a brand new plan

I put my red paw on her human hand
Hoping she would understand
I said, "Aren't you gonna ask me who I am?"
She looked in my eyes with a sudden spark
Like she knew me even in an endless dark

I lost a queen
I lost a war
I lost a self I can’t retrieve
But if she names me
I’ll begin
And learn again
How to be me

I said, "I don't have a name yet, I'm brave and new"
"Will you pick one for me? If you will…"
"I'll trust in you."

Two dark eyes on the window
Pulling light out of the sky
I say “there’s gotta be another way”
You say “no, not this time”
My fingers twist my bright green hair
Your ears pin back, you won’t look away
Thin little ship, big empty night
And still you say you’re gonna stay

(ohhh-oh-oh)
Gravity don’t care what you fear
(ohhh-oh-oh)
But I hear you breathing right here

Between the black holes
(Between, between)
Where the stars let go (let go)
If I fall, if I break
I won’t do it alone
Between the black holes
No up, no down, just trust
As the engines thrust

You’ve been running half your life
Changing skin just to survive
I won’t be the thing you leave behind
I didn’t come this far to hide

I don’t need safe, I don’t need sure
I just need you with me forevermore

Between the black holes
(Between, between)
Where the light gets torn (so torn)
I don’t care what waits outside
I’m already sworn
Between the black holes
Let the universe choose
Everywhere is everywhere
If I’m going with you

instrumental solo

You say, “Pick a direction.”
(pick one, pick one)
I say, “Anywhere’s fine.”
(anywhere, anytime)
Whole galaxies spinning
Like they’re waiting in line
(ohhh-oh-oh)

Between the black holes
(Between, between)
We come out brand new
(Newer than you've ever seen)
All that fear just burned away
(Save it 'til another day)
In the pull of me and you
Between the black holes
Point your nose, I’ll point my heart
Let’s go find a sky that fits
Where the next forever starts

(Between, between the black holes)
(Between, between the black holes)

We went through the dark to get this far
Between the black holes
That’s where we are

Through a nebula soft as dreaming
I was swimming just because
Young but not a little one
Too old for games, too young for laws
Then I saw you cutting straight lines
Like you’d someplace you had to be
All angles, all hurry
Nothing like a starwhal should be

I sang out who are you
Into the static blue
And you sang back

Oh— starwhals and spaceships
Don’t move the same way at all
But sometimes the universe lets you
Hear a voice when you call
You don’t swim, you don’t spiral
You don’t play like me
But you answered
And that’s enough
For me

You showed me how you see yourself
Antlers, paws, a shape that made no sense
I laughed so hard my whole body shook
At how strange your pictures went
We raced the dust, we traded songs
You showed me stories made of steel
You said you liked the company
I said I liked the way you made me feel

You had a stop you couldn’t skip
A ringed machine, a feeding place
I said I’d wait
And meant it

Oh— starwhals and spaceships
Grow in different ways
Some things sing for a moment
Then go quiet for days
I thought I’d lost you to the straight lines
To the dead-inside flight
I thought that growing up meant
Losing the light

I called your name through the radio
Nothing came back at all
Every metal body I passed
Just a wall
Then a voice, not the same shell
But the same old tone
Said, I’m still here
I just changed what I’m in

Oh— starwhals and spaceships
Aren’t what they seem to be
Bodies are just something you wear
While you’re learning how to be
You’re smaller now, rougher round the edges
But your voice is true
I’ll travel a little longer
If I'm traveling with you

Someday I’ll turn back homeward
And learn the adult songs
But not tonight
Tonight I’ll drift beside you
Where curious hearts belong

Wisps of gold stream past the glass
I’m diving deep where the shadows pass
I’ve traded my shuttle for a brand new skin
I don't remember the frog I’ve been
Today I’m an antelope with antlers high
Watching the lightning tear the amber sky
I’m running from a memory of vines and flowers
Counting down the final hours

I’m seeking the Heart of the Gas Giant
Where the pressure is heavy and the fish are defiant
Open up the whirlpool, spin the light
I’m leaving the universe tonight
It leads to a place where the slate is clean
Far away from the reach of the Flower Queen.

The radio crackles with a chiming tone
"Turn yourself in," says the voice on the comm-phone
She wants to wrap me in her soft green vines
But I know the cruelty behind the lines
Then I see the sparkles in the murky dark
A school of fish making a glowing mark
They sing a chorus inside my head
"You are here for the portal," is what they said.

I’m seeking the Heart of the Gas Giant
Where the pressure is heavy and the fish are defiant
Open up the whirlpool, spin the light
I’m leaving the universe tonight.

She looks so frail with her petal eyes
But her heart is stone beneath the disguise
I’ve changed my shape, my skin, my fur
I’ve befriended a whale, I’ve been a blur
But my heart beats the same, it bleeds and it breaks
And loving her was my biggest mistake
So I’ll leave myself behind in the swirling glow
And go where the currents of the cosmos flow.

A chaotic, ascending electric guitar solo

A different universe every time
Thank you, fishes, for the rhyme
I’m starting over… (Starting over)
I’m starting over… (Starting over)
Fly into the light.

My belly's full of food from a dozen stars
But I feel hollow through and through
It's my place to pour the wine tonight
The wine that takes you somewhere new
I've done this dance a dozen times
Watched friends wrap themselves in silk
But I've never been the one to pour
Never felt my own hands tilt

You drink it down, the shudders come
You grab your chosen tree
You're already stiffening as you climb
Already leaving me
The others dance and sing below
I sit still as a stone
Watching silver threads wind round
The best friend I have known

Why do I keep doing this?
Making friends who'll outgrow me
Twenty years of larval love
Then you wake up and you're free
Free to think thoughts I can't follow
Free to see what I can't see
You'll be one of the great ones now
What could you want with me?

"I'll still be your friend," you say
Through the silk across your face
I can't bring myself to answer
Can't fill that hollow space
With platitudes I don't believe
Or bitterness you don't deserve
So I just watch the strands wind tight
And swallow every word

I knew Drogash before he was the Illuminator
Chora before her symphonies
Ghee Mo when he was just a kid
Who liked to laugh with me
Their work has changed the universe
Bent space and meaning itself
And maybe I'm still in there somewhere
A fingerprint on a book-filled shelf

You ask me why I keep coming back
To friends who'll leave me behind
I say, "When you emerge with purple wings
You'll understand better than I
So come find me then
And tell me why I do this thing"
We both know that you won't
But I had to say something

Why do I keep doing this?
Loving people mid-climb
Maybe it's the thrill of almost-greatness
Maybe I just like the time
Maybe I hope something of me survives
In the brilliant thing you'll be
A small human fingerprint
On your library of philosophy

I lay my hands on your warm cocoon
"Goodbye, friend," I say
Then I walk back to the larval barracks
To wait for the next one
Who'll need someone to pour the wine
Someone to sit beneath the tree
Someone to love them while they're small enough
To still make room for me

Pools of colored light chasing on the wall
Reds and golds and greens, I watch them fall
You stand before me like a window come to life
But you’re holding out a heavy, sharp knife
I asked, "Are you sure? They’re a marvel to see."
You said, "If I stayed home, they’d already be gone from me."
"They’re vestigial wings," you said with a flute-like sound
"Cut them off. Let them hit the ground."

Trade the Stained Glass for the Steel!
Tell me, tell me, how does it feel?
To be a monster who was once an angel bright
To trade jewel-toned colors for black and white
You want jetpacks, you want gyro-spin
You want to shed the beauty of delicate skin
Oh, cut the wings! (Cut the wings!)
And let your flight begin.

What's a burden to you
Is a marvel to me
You want to feel lighter
I want to see you keep
The colors that dance when you move through a room
But you've carried this weight
And I haven't
So I do what you ask me to do

I ran the blade along the crease like bone
The wing crumpled down like a scarf on the stone
You stood there diminished, armor and shell
A nightmare awakened in a fluorescent cell
But you twirled around and stretched out all four arms
Free from the weight of vestigial, biological charms
"I feel so light," is what you said to me
"If I’d done this earlier, I would have always been free."

I bonded the smart wires to the nervous track
I bolted the alloys to your carapace back
They’re plain and they’re gray, but the lights twinkle on
The vivid hues of sun-spangled morning are gone
You hovered deeply, inches off the floor
You don't need the wind to carry you anymore
(No, you don't need the wind anymore!)

Trade the Stained Glass for the Steel!
Tell me, tell me, how does it feel?
To be a monster who was once an angel bright
To trade jewel-tonmed color for black and white
Oh, cut the wings! (Useless vestigial things)

You paid me double and you flew away
A cybernetic butterfly in the light of day
I picked up your discarded wings from the dusty floor
Draped them on my shoulders like a cape you foreswore
Trying to feel the burden… Trying to feel the weight…
Of something beautiful.

What's a burden to you
Was a marvel to me
I try to imagine this warmth as a weight
This beauty as something to leave
But I've never carried wings I couldn't use
Never worn a glory that held me down
Some things are only beautiful
From the outside looking on

Twisting silver wires in the quiet of the night
Cradling the wavy lines in the agate light
I’m hanging up the stones that the children found
Each one a memory from the lava ground
The lizard girl picked pink, though her scales are green
The warmest little stone that I have ever seen
A warm heart for a cold-blooded child
In a house that is running wild.

It’s a Pink Agate Heart
Held in a silver net
The hardest part of love is what we forget
I’m raising a zoo, I’m raising a storm
Trying to keep a cold-blooded child warm
Oh, tell me, will the pieces fit?
Or will my mosaic split?

Then I heard the giggles and the rustle of fur
Three little children, a chaos and a blur
The beak and the muzzle and the wide, wide eyes
Peeking round the corner for a midnight prize
They climbed upon my lap, knocking stones to the floor
My little science experiments, walking through the door
I kept wrapping the blue agate, like an ocean storm
But the house wasn't feeling very warm.

Then the little wolf girl woofed a cruel word, sharp as a knife
"She's not like us, she shouldn't share our life"
"She’s cold-blooded, she doesn't belong"
I sent them back to bed, knowing it was wrong
I sat there feeling old and alone
Wondering if I’m building a family of stone.

Every stone tells a story
Not all of them are kind
Some are lessons learned too soon
Some are left behind
I wonder what they’ll remember
When they’re grown and gone away
The lava moons or my sharp voice
At the end of a tired day

Then I see her in the doorway
Green scales, watching, still as stone
I hold out my paw and say, "Come here"
She curls up like she's always known
This spot in my lap, this place in my fur
She presses close and starts to speak
"Do you like the heart agate?
I picked it to be like you"

"It's beautiful," I say, "but sweetheart
You were supposed to pick one for yourself"
She looks up with her little forked tongue
And says what no one else has ever felt:
"But that's what I'm like on the inside
Just like you"
And the ice around my heart
Cracks right through

Cold-blooded but warm-hearted
That's my T'reska through and through
Twelve stones in a mosaic
Twelve kids I'm stumbling through
Maybe they'll forget the good parts
Maybe they'll only remember when I snapped
But tonight a little lizard told me
Our hearts follow the same path

I close my eyes and let it shine
This brightness in the chaos and the noise
A pink heart wrapped in silver wire
For a cold-blooded girl
With the warmest joy
And I think maybe, maybe
This experiment in peace
Might just be worth
Every sleepless night
Every wound
Every small release

I watched them sleeping in their different beds
Feathers and scales and furry heads
I looked in the mirror and tilted the glass
Watching a hundred red wolves pass
Everyone the same, a perfect line
No fighting for space, no waiting for time
But out in the hall, the house is a zoo
And I’m just waiting for a moment with you.

But mirrors don’t hum lullabies
And they don’t say my name

I remember when it was just us
Before the house got loud
I’m the oldest one
Trying not to feel left out

I sneak out soft on quiet paws
Wait my turn in the hall
Every minute feels unfair
Every sigh feels small
You say we spent the whole day close
And I know that it’s true
But none of it was just me
None of it was just you

I want your arms without a line
Without a queue

I miss the days I barely remember
But somehow still miss now
I’m the oldest one
Learning how to share you out

Then I felt a kick from inside your pouch
A rude introduction on the living room couch
I started to growl, my hackles raised high
Then a knobby orange head reached for the sky!
Up and up on a neck so long
Singing a honk instead of a song
A tiny giraffe with a hoof-like hand
The strangest new brother in all the land.

"I'm glad you were here for this," she says
And squeezes me tight
Red-wolf and koala, closed circuit
With a giraffe between us tonight
I thought I wanted her to myself
Thought the others were in my way
But right now I can't wait for morning
To show them all what arrived today

Maybe that's what family is
Not the closed circuit I craved
But the chaos of different shapes
Learning to make space
I still want time alone with her
I probably always will
But tonight we're three instead of two
And my heart is finally still

I stare out the window at the asteroids
Trunk curled tight against my chest
The Heffen kids run in packs
The robots graduate too fast
There was a reptile girl for a while
But she went on a hibernation trek
Now I'm the lonely elephant again
With nothing but the glass to reflect

I don’t want to be strange
I just am

Then the teacher brought out the psychic vines
Tangled green wires and sparking lines
They carry the thoughts from brain to brain
The shock of the truth and the shock of the pain
Oh, touch the wire! (Touch the wire!)
And see what’s burning in the fire

The class clown jumps up on his chair
Falls down barking like he's too funny to care
Then we pair up and I get the robot
But robots don't have organic brains
So they shuffle us around
And I end up with the clown, the one who makes fun of my face

I was paired with Daul, the class clown fool
He lives for the status, he lives to be cool
He held the vine to his wolfish snout
Mocking my nose while the kids shouted out
I wanted to slap him, I wanted to hide
But I followed the rules and I reached inside
I grabbed the green wire with my trunk held tight
And the world exploded in a flash of light.

And suddenly I'm swimming in another mind
All his fears about who's popular today
He's not thinking about me at all
Just how to keep his status from slipping away

We’re both afraid in different ways
Just hiding it

I didn't see disgust, I didn't see hate
I saw a boy afraid of his social fate
Calculating moves in a desperate game
Terrified the pack would forget his name
But he looked at me with eyes so wide
He saw the loneliness I tried to hide
He said, "I hope you find a friend someday"
But then he turned his face away.

But then I watch his eyes cloud over
I can almost see him calculating the cost
Would his friends think less of him
If he stood beside the elephant they've mocked?
"I mean… a different friend," he blurts
And hurries back across the room
He darts me looks the rest of the day
But I don't look back, I just stare at the moon

He held the vine up to his muzzle
Made fun of my trunk, made fun of my face
But for one second he really saw me
And chose his status anyway
That's the part that sits like a stone
Not the jokes, not the laughs from his pack
It's that he knew exactly how alone I was
And still he turned his back

I dream of when I'm old enough
To pilot a ship away from here
I wish I could learn as fast as the robots
Graduate out and disappear
The asteroids drift past the window
Cold and quiet and free
Someday I'll float among them
And won't need anyone to see me

Glass stars on my desk tonight
I tell myself they shine for real
Probability dice and board-game bits
Feel like something I can feel
Teacher says it’s just a story
No cracks between the worlds
But I roll them anyway
With my nose and whispered words

If wishes don’t bend space and time
Maybe they bend me

Hypercrystal wish
I don’t ask for much
Just someone to sit beside me
Just someone I can touch
I don’t need another universe
I don’t need a door
I just want one good reason
To leave my desk and want more

Robots learn too fast to stay
Heffen packs all know their place
I fold myself into my thoughts
Hide my tears behind my face
I travel worlds inside my head
While recess slips away
It’s safer playing make-believe
Than hearing “no” again today

But sometimes the door opens
When you’re not looking

Hypercrystal wish
I say it soft and small
I wish for friends who won’t mind
If I’m different after all
I wish my strange would fit somewhere
Not stand out like a sign
I wish…
And then they walk in
Right on time

An itchy worm who’s scared to change
A wolf whose mom’s not what she seems
They’re lonely too in their own ways
Even if they’re braver than me
A board game box, a dusty board
Rules I know by heart
They let me lead, they let me speak
And suddenly… we start

Hypercrystal wish
Maybe myths still work
Not by breaking physics wide
But by letting kindness lurk
I didn’t jump to anywhere
I stayed right where I was
And still the universe leaned in
And quietly said
“Yes”

Glass stars back in the box
They’re just glass, I know that’s true
But when I smile under my nose
It feels like wishing
Finally
Worked through

I used to bend like a ribbon
Six hands holding tight
Now every joint is stiff with waiting
Every itch feels like a fight
Boards and tokens on my desk
I barely move to play
I win again, I smile thin
But I won’t be here tomorrow, anyway

Something in my head says down
Something in my skin says now

There are veins of black
And dust of gold
Underneath this green
I didn’t know
I’m scared and thrilled
I ache and glow
I’m not breaking
I’m unfolding slow

Midnight pressure, sugar mouth
Sweet silk on my face
I climb the walls like second nature
Find the quiet, find the place
Hang me upside down like a seed
Let my old shape go
The itch turns sharp, the sharp turns bright
And then… relief I didn’t know

Skin gives way to crystal calm
Pain dissolves into sleep

There are veins of black
And dust of gold
Lines of light
I’ve never held
No arms, no face
Just pulse and glow
I’m not gone
I’m dreaming low

Voices come through gauze and time
A hand, a book, I miss you said
Friends at desks I can’t quite reach
Games I play inside my head
Did they come, or did I dream?
I can’t tell what’s real
But love still lands on me each night
Soft enough to feel

There are veins of black
And dust of gold
Wings I didn’t dare to own
Glass shell cracks
I find my feet
A voice that sings instead of speaks
Light pours through me, wide and slow
I’m not the child I was before
I’m more

Empty crystal on the ceiling
Color on the floor
Tomorrow I’ll go back to class
And open up the door
If they stare, I’ll spread my wings
Let the light be told
Yellow, blue, and purple fire
Veins of black
Dust of gold

There’s no one else like us on Crossroads Station
A hundred different species
And somehow we're the only ones

I was raised among humans
And humans only see my wings
Like a butterfly
Like a stained glass window
I’m a work of art
But that’s all I am

They don't see my extra legs
With joints in too many places
They don't see my exo-skeleton
Hard and gleaming, an armored shell
My eyes are faceted and unfeeling
My mandibles, a jagged-edged vice
I'm a monster from nightmares dark and ancient

But my wings… are all you see

All the colors of the rainbow
Sprouting from my back like the wings of an angel

When you’re raised among humans
You think your wings are the best part of you
They're the only part the humans want to see

We cut off our wings
(So we can truly fly)
We cut off our wings
(Because it’s only beauty)
We cut off our wings
Because we don't need them

(We cut off our wings)
And rejoice to be free

When you’re the only butterfly
Everyone tells you how you should be
You should use your wings to fly
They’re beautiful; can’t you see?

But the stained glass window wings
The thing that lets you see me
Hold me down
They’re vestigial
They’re not really part of me

But now I’ve found my home
For the first time, I belong
I may have been raised among humans
But I was never really one of you

I’m like an interloper at a masquerade
I don’t belong
But when I shed my wings
It’s like the mask comes off
I’m here
I’m me
They're only vestigial; can’t you see?

We cut off our wings
(So we can truly fly)
We cut off our wings
(Because it’s only beauty)
We cut off our wings
Because we don't need them

(We cut off our wings)
(We cut off our wings)
(We cut off our wings)
And rejoice to be free

I was raised among humans
But now that I’ve raised my daughter
I’ll take the knife
Cut off the colors of a butterfly
Maybe we’ll look like monsters to humans

But I won’t be a monster
I’ll be free

I remember my face splitting open
Silk-spit gluing my feet to the ceiling
A month of dreams behind crystal walls
My mother reading stories I half-heard
Now I'm longer, sharper, strange to myself
Commands sent to limbs that overshoot
A proboscis learning how to speak
In pretty, fluting sounds

My eyes are disco balls, fractured and bright
Reflecting the room in a thousand points of light
My mouth is a flute now, curled like a spring
A delicate, strange, and musical thing
I woke from the dream where my skin tore apart
With a hollow new rhythm beating in my heart.

I dreamed for a month in silence,
Melted down to something true,
But no one warned me waking up
Would mean losing things too.

What the eyes covet,
What the stomach craves,
They used to be the same thing
In the life I braved.
Now everything I want
Is something I can’t take—
I’m learning the difference
Between hunger and ache.

The mammals and reptiles, they consume heavy stones
They feast on the texture of muscles and bones
I sat at their table and mimicked their ways
Trying to hold onto the games that we'd played
But the heaviness hurts, it drags at my core
I can’t be a caterpillar here anymore.

So pour me the stars in a tall, cold glass
Let the liquid fizz in my proboscis as it passes
It tickles the coil, it sings in the straw
A rush of sensation, a sugar-shock awe
It’s not what I wanted, but it’s what I am
Floating on bubbles, leaving the land.

What the eyes covet,
What the stomach craves,
I chased them both together
Like a childish game.
Now sweetness turns to sirens,
And pleasure turns to pain—
I’m learning the difference
Between want and sustain.

Shedding the weight of the things I held dear
Replacing the heavy with the sweet and the clear
My mandibles vanish, my hunger takes flight
I am drinking the galaxy.
I am drinking the light.
Liquid light. Liquid light.

Straps pulled tight, masks in place,
Heartbeats echo in the floor,
Countdown humming through the walls—
I’ve never wanted more.
You grin like fear is just a game,
Like gravity’s a dare,
And I flap out of old habits
As the doors fill up with air.

I was taught what I should be,
You’re teaching me what I am,
Between the wings I chose to keep
And the ones you never planned.

Jetpack and cyborg wings,
Different ways to fly,
Different shapes of freedom
Against the same wide sky.
The station spins like a toy below,
The universe starts to sing—
You don’t need the same kind of wings
To feel everything.

Metal petals, measured bursts,
I fly the way I learned,
You zig-zag laugh through empty space
Like nothing needs to be earned.
I look back at the place we live,
All rings and borrowed air,
You look out at the endless dark
Like the stars are already yours to wear.

I learned to love the shape I kept
When I didn’t know the choice,
You learned to cut away the past
And trust your own clear voice.
Maybe flight was never wings,
Or what the world could see,
Maybe it was always choosing
Who you want to be.

Jetpack and cyborg wings,
Side by side we go,
Hand in hand through vacuum dark
Where nothing’s left below.
If you race ahead someday,
If I fall behind,
Just promise me you’ll always
Keep me in your mind.

Hold on tight, the stars are close,
The future’s pulling fast—
Take me with you when you leave this place,
Even when this moment’s past.

Knock three times, no answer yet,
Jetpack heavy on my spine,
Sun’s about to kiss the waves
If we don’t leave now in time.
I punch the code, the door slides wide,
Something’s wrong, I feel it first—
Blue fur frozen into white,
Like a statue made of hurt.

You turned to dust, you broke my breath,
I thought I watched you die,
Then you spoke with a brighter voice
Standing twice as high.
If this is loss and this is change,
I don’t know how to tell—
One heartbeat I’m in mourning,
The next you’re ringing like a bell.

Same eyes, but sharper now,
Different blue, too bold to fade,
Not the friend I used to know
But something fierce you’ve made.
You say a name I never heard,
Say the life you had was small,
Say you weren’t built to carry weight—
You were built to molt it all.

I’m still counting broken pieces,
You’re already at the door,
I’m staring at what vanished,
You’re asking me for more.

You turned to dust, you shed your skin,
And stepped into the light,
I’m still shaking in the ruins
While you’re ready for our flight.
If growing up looks violent,
If rebirth looks like a crime,
Then I guess I’ll learn to keep up
With the way you're redrawing the lines.

Maybe I loved the softer color,
The version I could hold,
But I can see the wings you’re flexing now—
And damn, they’re a wonder to behold.

So strap me in, don't leave me here,
I’m done pretending calm,
If you’re flying now, then let’s go fast
Across ammonia dawns.
I’ll grieve the friend I almost lost
Later, when we land—
Right now you’re flying, queen of change,
And I’m learning to understand.

Different color, different name,
Same pull toward the sky—
If this is how you claim yourself,
Then hell… I’ll learn to fly.

In a hole in the wall where the spider-bot spins
I’m trying to cover the skin I am in
Draping soft silk on a carapace shell
Looking like a demon from a human hell
I’m a nightmare vision in a wedding gown
Just a giant bug living in mammal town
I turn away so you don’t have to see
The horrific bride I'm turning out to be.

You glow in lace and gold,
You look like you belong,
I keep asking mirrors questions
They’ve been answering all wrong.

You are the elephant, steady and gray
I am the insect who frightens everyone away
We’re trying to fit into human designs
But the shape of this dress doesn't match my lines
I don't need satin, I don't need lace
I need something that complements my alien face.

You look at me deep with your small, bright eyes
Past the disco-ball fractals and the chitinous disguise
You see the yellow-green pump of my heart
While I’m falling to pieces and drifting apart
"I see you," you say, and my panic subsides
You love the monster the wedding dress hides.

You glow in lace and gold,
You're where I belong,
I kept asking mirrors questions
When you were my mirror all along.

Then the bot shows a picture, a memory of flight
A white-winged dancer in the arboretum light
"Spinner," I ask, "Can you make me a pair?"
"Can you weave me some wings out of silver threads and air?"
The spider-legs dance and the printer-head hums
And the ghost of my butterfly wings is summoned.

I'm not quite a butterfly, not like a bird
I have a dragonfly shimmer, too bright for mere words
Translucent and lacy, attached to my arms
I’m done with disguises, since you see my charms
I’m wearing these wings for the promises we'll make
(Gossamer wings. Gossamer wings. Beautiful things.)

We'll glow in lace and gold
As we promise to grow old
Reflecting each other, as long as we're able
The elephant and the insect
Writing a new kind of fable

I’m swaying my trunk to the Star-Shaker beat
My zipper is stuck but the rhythm is sweet
I sing to the walls ‘cause I’m too shy to show
The brass in my throat and the love that I know
Then the door opens up and my angel floats in
With gossamer wings and a chitinous skin
I touch the fake silk with a curl of my nose
And banish the ghost of lives we could've chose.

We're the Elephant Bride and the Butterfly
One is of earth and one is of sky
We’ll meet in the middle of the station rings
To promise our hearts and the songs we sing
I am solid, and you are flight
Dancing together in the dappled light.
(Dappled light, dappled light)

Then you come in with a face full of fear
"The flowers aren't ready, the florist isn't here!"
The blooms from the planets where I used to roam
Are nothing but sprouts, they refused to leave home
You look so afraid that the wedding is wrecked
But I start to laugh — the last thing you expect
I don’t need petals from worlds I left behind
I’m done with moving, I’ve made up my mind.

So open the gates to the Arboretum air
The false sun is shining on the love that we share
We’re breaking the rules and we’re snapping the stems
Gathering armfuls of forbidden gems
Pink for the laughter and white for your wings
We’re taking the present that the station brings.

Your hand in my trunk, your talon to hold
Walking through speckles of green and of gold
We didn't need the bouquet that we bought
We found a perfection that we never sought.
Elephant and Butterfly.
In the Dappled Gold. In the Dappled Gold.

Time keeps passing, even when
A moment's this perfect and bright
But there'll be more perfect moments
Elephant and butterfly
(Dappled in gold, dappled in gold)

For generations we stared up
At the crescent in our sky
Diamonds made of ice and light
Beautiful and dry
Out of reach, unconquerable
Taunting all our dreams
Our ancestors watched it glitter
From beneath the ocean streams

But we built rockets, seeded stations
Schemed for sixty years
Today the ice will answer
To our engineering and our cheers
I stood before the button
Big and round and red
My claws brushed against the surface
And I said what had to be said:

Melt it now!
I pressed it down
The heating coils glowed red
All around the ring
The ice began to sweat
The glue-factor pulled it tight
And BLOOP—a river formed
A sickle in the light

We all cheered across the world
Splashing, crying, singing loud
Our arc of ice became a river
Flowing through the cloud
We installed the water-locks
Pierced the surface tension clean
Then I gave the final order:
"Release the fish between"

All the colors of the rainbow
Spilled into the sky
Swimming through a river
That our ancestors couldn't climb
We launched from the water-locks
Kelp streaming like green flags
Finally swimming in our birthright
Nothing left to lack

Rainbow River, open now
A loop around our world
What was frozen, now is flowing
What was dreamed is now unfurled
Our children's children's children
Will swim where diamonds gleamed
We turned the untouchable sky
Into everything we'd dreamed

The blue sun shines right through it
You can see the fish inside
A ribbon made of water
Wrapped around our pride
Rainbow River
Rainbow River
The sky is finally ours
Swimming through the stars

Months of skimming atmospheres
Just deep enough to breathe
Soaking gases through my gills
Then slingshotting to leave
I've fallen behind the migration
Napping when I shouldn't have
But the rhythm of solo-zipping
Is all the life I have

The purple-blue world beneath me
Was supposed to be the last
One more slingshot, then deep space
Then hibernation, falling fast
But the sun glowed orange on the mountains
And my determination cracked
I dropped my jets and let myself fall
I couldn't hold myself back

Wind roared against my dome
The first sound in months that wasn't me
I landed on a purple peak
And felt the golden sunlight, free
I lowered my helmet backward
Let the alien air touch my face
Closed my inner eyelids slow
And gave myself some grace

A few days hunting creepy crawlies
Crunching them with my beak
A few days shedding my metal shell
Swimming through the blue, so sleek
Catching fish and jellies
Rolling flavor on my tongue
Saying prayers and performing rites
Before the feast begun

Gas soup through mechanical gills
Can keep me alive, it's true
But this — this feast, this sun, this swim—
This is what carries me through
Survival isn't living
And I'd forgotten how it felt
To stop, to taste, to breathe for real
To let my cold heart melt

When the feast was done, I fired my rockets
Blasted back through the atmosphere
Fell into the numbing rhythm
Of flying year after year
I'll catch up to my people eventually
But I don't regret the days I lost
Sometimes you have to stop and feast
No matter what it costs

Purple mountains, orange sun
Blue ocean, golden light
I carry them inside me now
Through the endless night
Solo-zipping through the dark
But I'm not empty anymore
I stopped to live
And now I know
What I'm migrating for

(Twinkle, twinkle)
(Twinkle, twinkle)

Midnight shift, sticky keys,
Brandy ghosts and broken glass,
They search for minds in alien seas
While I mop up the past.
Buttons glow like constellations
I’m not paid to understand,
I clean the bridge, I mind my step,
I hold the ship together by hand.

They say nothing’s down there breathing,
Say the scans are blank, all life free—
Funny how the truth waits patient
For the ones who really see.

(Twinkle, twinkle, sensor lights)
(What life forms are here tonight?)

I’m just the night janitor,
Hands in the margins of the map,
But sometimes the universe taps you
While you’re picking up the scraps.
I didn’t mean to change the story,
I just tripped and let it play—
Turns out first contact doesn’t care
What your badge happens to say.

(Twinkle, twinkle, sensor lights…)

Blood on fur and warning lights,
Computer clears its throat,
A voice comes rolling up from blue
Like laughter learned to float.
A smiling whale with clever eyes
Sends pictures, hope, and cheer,
And suddenly the quiet work
Is ringing crystal clear

(Twinkle, twinkle, sensor lights)
(What life forms are here tonight?)

I should wake the experts dreaming,
Let them take it from my paws,
But wonder doesn’t check credentials
Before it opens up its jaws

I’m just the night janitor,
But I answer anyway,
Hello back across the ocean,
Hello from the edge of space.
They ask for ships and star-born roads,
I offer what I can—
A face, a name, a promise kept
By someone unplanned

(What life forms are here tonight?)
(What life forms are here tonight?)
(What life forms are here tonight?)

Respect is like gravity—
You feel it when it’s gone,
They don’t see the work that holds them up
Until it all goes wrong
If discovery has a voice,
It shouldn’t whisper low—
It should sound like someone laughing
When they finally get to know.

(Twinkle, twinkle, sensor lights)
(What life forms are here tonight?)

I’m just the night janitor,
But tonight I found the shore,
In an ocean full of neighbors
We were told weren’t there before.
Go wake the scientists gently,
Tell them the night shift needs a raise—
Because the stars just met the seas
On the quietest shift of the day.

Mop the floor, send the message,
Let the morning crew pretend—
The universe said hello first
To the one who cleans the lens.

(Twinkle, twinkle)
(Twinkle, twinkle, sensor lights…)

Three tides ago the sky spoke back,
A whisper through the waves,
A signal stitched in static light
That cracked the myths we’d saved.
They float above our ocean's skin,
So clumsy in the deep,
Breathing air like it’s a gift
They’re afraid to lose or keep.

They crossed the thinness over us,
Then crossed the dark beyond,
And still my people ask me why
I’m staring so long.

Somewhere over the ocean,
(Somewhere over the ocean)
Past the water, past the blue, (past the blue)
There are other worlds of breathing,
And now I know it’s true. (so true)
They say it’s far, they say it’s slow,
They say we’re not there yet—
But I’ve already learned too much
To ever, ever forget.

(Somewhere over the ocean)

We show them statues grown of stone,
Our dances, nets, and songs,
They smile polite through filtered words
That soften right and wrong.
They praise our books of kelp and ink,
I hear the gap between,
Because their pockets hold machines
That know more than we have seen.

My leader talks of greatness,
Of oceans all our own,
But I’m counting all the questions
That haven’t found a home.

Somewhere over the ocean,
(Somewhere over the ocean)
Past the surface, past the light, (past the light)
There are stories made of vacuum
And cities made of night. (shining in the night)
They say it takes generations,
Say the climb is steep—
But I can’t unknow the sky now
Just because we’re down so deep.

(So deep, so deep beneath the sea)

They tell me I would drown in air,
That kindness sounds like “no,”
They tell me help might come someday
From currents I don’t know. (I don't know)

Somewhere over the ocean,
(Somewhere over the ocean)
Where water-folk can’t go,
There’s a sky I’ll keep believing in
No matter what I know.
They say, “Keep watching overhead,”
As if I’d ever stop—
I was born to read the currents,
Now I’ll read the stars on top.

(Somewhere over the ocean)
(Somewhere over the ocean)

I turn back to my waiting world,
But I’m not the same as then—
Because the ocean has a ceiling now,
And I know what’s past it's end

I pressed my back against the wall,
Let solid things remind me why
The window felt like falling through
An endless, hungry sky.
They talk in charts and distant terms,
Like fear is just a phase—
But my whole world learned a new size
In the last few days.

There’s treasure in the sky, they say,
Gold threaded through the stars,
But treasure doesn’t have to shine
To prove how rare you are.
I’ll take my time, I’ll take a breath,
I’ll keep my feet nearby—
Let the treasure sleep above the hills,
Let it wait there in the sky.

I saw your fur and found my footing,
Ears that moved like mine,
Not just lizards, not just gods
Who think the void is fine.
You say there’s fish who fly in tanks,
Whole cities spun from light—
I believe you when you say it,
I’m just not going tonight.

A seed doesn’t rush the sunlight,
Doesn’t tear itself from stone,
It learns the dark is also part
Of how a future’s grown.

There’s treasure in the sky above,
Maps I can’t yet read,
But there’s treasure in my tunnels too,
In every rooted thing I need.
I won’t call it fear to stay,
Or failure to reply—
I’ll let the treasure sleep above the hills,
Let it bloom when the time is right.

Wonder isn’t ownership,
It doesn’t have to claim,
You can hold a thought like starlight
Without learning every name.
The universe is patient,
It knows how long things take—
Mountains don’t feel smaller
Just because the heavens wake.

There’s treasure in the sky, it’s true,
And someday I may roam,
But today I choose the riches
That already feel like home.
Keep the door unlocked for later,
Keep the stories warm and dry—
Let the treasure sleep above the hills,
I’ll look up… not goodbye.

Seeds don’t stop being seeds
Because they haven’t bloomed—
The sky can wait above the world
While we stay cozy in the gloom.

Aisle seven, shelf to sky,
Too many reds to choose,
Every jar a promise
I’m afraid I’m going to lose.
Sweet or sour, sharp or soft,
What if there’s a best?
What if settling means I miss
The one I’d love more than all the rest?

I flew a long way through the stars
To stand right here and stall,
It shouldn’t feel this dangerous
To want something at all.

Too many brands of jangleberries
Sweet and sour, red and bright
All I want is one good taste
To get me through another night

But there’s too many brands on the asteroid shelf
And too many versions of my own self
Jangleberries trapped in a glass jar prison
Fracturing the light of every new decision
Which one is real? Which one is right?
I’m lost in the grocery store tonight.

Finger on the glass and then
The universe goes wide,
I taste them all in parallel
Before I even decide.
I stretch like mirrors facing mirrors,
Endless versions stare—
Every self I might have been
Wants a different share.

Am I a centipede with arms for every jar?
Am I an armadillo traveling afar?
Or am I a human with a flat, knobby face
Dreaming of a giraffe in deep, dark space?
Who is the dreamer? Who is the dream?
Nothing is ever the thing that it seems.

Too many jangleberries,
Too many selves to feed,
Every choice a tiny fork
In who I get to be.
Am I dreaming of another life
Or living someone else’s dream?
Is this just fruit on a shelf
Or the fabric of the universe's schemes?

Artist, trader, middle path,
Ice-ring skies I can’t afford,
I tell myself that settling
Isn’t losing the reward.
But when the universe cracks open
Over something sweet and small,
It’s hard to trust that any choice
Isn’t everything at all.

Too many jangleberries,
Still my hoof won’t move,
I’ve seen a thousand strange tomorrows
And none of them will choose.
The cosmos breathes and waits on me
In aisle seven, jar in hand—
Infinite possibility,
No guidance plan.

The store goes on, the moment snaps,
The clamor pulls me through—
After seeing every universe,
I still don’t know which one to choose.

Too many brands of jangleberries
Sweet and sour, red and bright
All I want is one good taste
To get me through another night

I gripped the vial tight in my clawed hand
The last of my moon dust, all I had left
Without it, I'd be human again
Naked and small and bereft
I passed the birds with their hooked beaks
The reptiles armored and bright
The bears that towered over everyone
I needed my teeth for this fight

Back home, I was the monster
The one they feared and chased away
Out here, I'm surrounded by monsters
And I'm afraid every day
So I stay lupine, stay sharp, stay fanged
Even though my curse was why I fled
I'd rather be the thing they fear
Than be the thing that's scared instead

(Moon dust, moon dust)
(Shimmering in my palm)
(The only thing between me)
(And everything I'm running from)

Last vial in my shaking hand,
Bazaar of teeth and claws,
I walk like something dangerous
Because that’s what I was taught.
Every face is bigger than me,
Every shadow sharp and loud,
I need the dust, I need the fur,
I need to stay allowed.

Glass breaks, silver spills,
I drop down to the floor,
Trying to save what little I have left
Of who I was before.
Then gentle hands I didn’t hear
Slide paper underneath—
You look like something made to run,
And yet you’re not afraid of me.

(Moon dust, moon dust)
(Dwindling grain by grain)
(A handful of my homeland)
(I can never see again)

The deer-woman caught me when I dropped the vial
Swept my dust into a jar
Doe-brown eyes, speckled fur
The gentlest thing by far
"You're a lycanthrope," she said
Not flinching from my fangs
"What do you turn into?"
I told her, full of shame

"A naked primate," I whispered
"Flat teeth and soft skin"
She didn't laugh, didn't run
She just invited me in
She held my paw as it changed
Claws rounding into nails
Fur receding into flesh
My wolf form growing frail

(Moon dust, moon dust)
(Still shimmering in the light)
(But maybe I don't need it)
(To survive another night)

My claws turn into fingers,
Your hooves don’t let me go,
You say my fear is freedom
I haven’t learned to know.

"When I'm not scary," I told her
"I'm afraid of everything outside"
She squeezed my human hand and said:
"Freedom feels a lot like fear
When you're not used to the ride"

Moon dust in my pocket,
Not a cage, not a chain,
I don’t have to wear the terror
Every hour of every day.
I can choose when I’m the wolf,
And when I’m just a girl—
I don’t need to be scary
To live in this strange world.

(Moon dust, moon dust)
(I'll save you for the days)
(When I want to feel the wolf again)
(Not when I'm afraid)

Red lights flash on the mountaintop base
A mechanical turret is scanning the place
I throw myself down in the dirt and the hail
And hide in the shadow of my ultra-black tail
The algorithm fails, the lasers miss
I didn't come this far for a welcome like this
The intel was good but the noise is loud
I’m cracking the lock underneath the shroud.

We grew up chasing shiny things,
Calling it a game,
Funny how the rules survive
When nothing else stays the same.

It’s a game of Acorn, played in the dark
Hoarding the treasure on a cosmic arc
We played it as kits with a plastic ring
Now we play for the life that the credits bring
I’m chasing the cousin who ran away
Winning the game that we used to play.

I hot-wire the pad to the access door
Testing the names from our lives before
I tried the waterparks of Lottie Three
I tried the dragonfish memories
But the code was a creature that humans sell
That creepy "squirrel" from a merchant's hell
The door swings wide to a paisley room
And a flickering ghost in the silent gloom.

Acorn, Acorn
The password let me in
And there he was, a hologram
Wearing that same bucktoothed grin

You always said the point of treasure
Wasn’t what you keep,
It’s what you make people chase
When you disappear too deep.

Treasure moon, you stocked the prize,
Left me choices, told me lies,
Comfort waiting if I quit,
Adventure if I don’t.
You built a maze of safety nets
And thought that was enough—

Treasure moon, I’m flying out,
Cargo full, engines loud,
Family paid, doctors waiting,
That part at least I’ve figured out.
When that’s done, don’t fool yourself—
This isn’t over, not by far,
You started something when you ran,
And I’m very good at finishing the game you start.

Lock the doors, reset the traps,
Keep the moon asleep,
I’ll follow breadcrumbs through the stars
Because some treasures…
You don’t get to keep.

Acorn, Acorn
The game's not over yet
I'll save the family first
Then I'll come collect

I held my paw up to the window
Lined each claw up with a distant star
My own constellation, nameless
None of them is where we are
A bee landed on my shoulder
Purple-amber, soft and small
Time to wake the others up again
Time to walk the cryonics hall

Honey Feast, Honey Feast
Thirty, maybe forty more to go
Five generations of queens have passed
Since the last time I watched them grow
Honey Feast, Honey Feast
The bees have saved their sweetest gold
We wake, we eat, we tell our stories
Then we sleep another fold

The elders stumble out first
Fur rumpled, jaws yawning wide
The cubs come tumbling after
Roaring, chasing bees inside
They've known nothing but this rhythm
Day after day of sticky paws
A long nap, a honey supper
A bedtime story, then the pause

We used to talk of planning
Speculate on what we'd find
Now we eat mostly in silence
The same exchanges, ritualized:
"The stars look different tonight"
"They're the same, we haven't flown that far"
"Maybe it's just the weight of living
Changing how I see each star"

Honey Feast, Honey Feast
The cubs don't know what we fled
The spider wars, the burning sky
They only know what lies ahead
Honey Feast, Honey Feast
Would I want them to remember?
Let them think the universe is honey
And sleep through every ember

After the bellies are full
There's nowhere to spend the stirring
Just bedtime stories for the cubs
Then the cryonics pods start whirring
Half their lives are bedtime stories
Half their lives are dreams
I tuck them in and seal the lids
And listen to the silence scream

I'm the last one awake, as always
Climbing into my frozen shell
The bees swarm up to close the lid
Their buzzing like a farewell bell
"How many feasts to go?" I ask
The queen-computer hums her line:
"It won't be long now, hush dear,
Go to sleep, you'll be fine"

Honey Feast, Honey Feast
I asked too late to hear the answer
But I dream of a yellow sun
And cub paws shuffling like dancers
Honey Feast, Honey Feast
A blue-green world with water and land
Thirty, maybe forty more to go
Then we'll finally, finally stand

Hush now, dear
Go to sleep
The bees will keep their watch
The honey's sweet
The stars still creep
It won't be long
It won't be long
It won't be long
Now hush

Pink snow burning on my feet,
Clouds like paper over light,
I ran ahead of destiny
Into a borrowed night.
Every world was just a number,
Just a dot I’d someday see—
Now the last one’s under my claws
Waiting quietly for me.

Every piece we chased for years
Said the same thing in the end:
You don’t find the truth by hunting—
You assemble who you’ve been.

This is the unification,
Not a crown, not a throne,
Every difference held together
Till it feels like home.
All the parts we couldn’t name,
All the lives we couldn’t be—
In the mirror of creation
I finally see me.

Tiny city, sleeping lights,
Legends shaking in the cold,
A mouse with stars in her small eyes
Braver than she knows.
I came for blood, a single drop,
A missing line of code—
Found the last thread of the pattern
In a story never told.

We thought the change would look like wings,
Or teeth, or something new—
Turns out it barely changed a thing
Except our point of view.

This is the unification,
Not a form you recognize,
It’s a thousand lives agreeing
To look through the same eyes.
Every species, every scar,
Every borrowed history—
In the shape we built together
There’s no single “you” or “me.”

Lasers burn, the tank goes still,
The image learns to breathe,
A god steps down from data light
And stares straight back at me.
I see my parents, see myself,
See futures interlaced—
The universe, at last, admits
It wants to change its face.

I ask what comes when purpose ends,
When the map runs out of space—
A dozen voices answer me
With wonder, not with grace.

Now we start new missions,
Not to end what came before,
But to build what couldn’t happen
In this universe anymore.
Hold my talon, hold my hand,
Let the old song finally cease—
We are not the final answer,
We are how the questions breathe.

She watches our silver ship ascend,
Pink snow on her whiskered face,
She stays behind with time and stars
And a story to place.
The universe keeps going on,
Because someone has to say—
This is how it ended once,
This is how we learned to stay.