Stares Back

Enter the void and explore what lies beyond what we know and understand.

Ryan Meyer is an award-winning writer whose work has appeared in Moon Tide Press' Dark Ink anthology, Folio Literary Magazine, and Spellbinder Magazine, among others. Ryan and his books have been featured in Forbes, Cosmopolitan, Publisher’s Weekly, Pop-Culturalist, Lambda Literary, Connecticut Magazine, and more. ​He published Haunt, his first book of poems, in February 2018, and his follow-up, Tempest, in March 2021. Learn more at NothingPeak.com

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They say staring into an aurora 
Is far more dangerous than 
Staring straight into the sun.

So one day, intrigued,
You try for yourself.

Snow softly swirls 
Around your ankles,
As if to say turn back;
It isn’t safe here.
You shove your hands
Deep into your pockets
And watch the swirling lights
Glow green, blue, purple.

The aurora glimmers,
As though containing
Galaxies of its own.
You’re taken by it,
Captivated, hypnotized,
Fully in its control.

It flashes, and you blink,
Turning around to find
You’re no longer home. 
Smooth, pale surfaces
Make up a room
Crafted around you
Soundless, in seconds.
No wind, no snow,
No noise, save the sound
Of softly lapping water.

A hall stretches ‘round 
The corner before you,
And you proceed, 
Finding yourself
Entering another room
Where two women stand,
Facing away, dressed
In simple white gowns.

Two narrow wading pools
Flank either side,
Casting crystalline light
About the room,
From a source
Out of sight.

Something doesn’t
Feel right.

Before the women,
You find the light source,
Burst from a billowing cloud,
Aurora-like on its own,
And you can’t quite
Place your finger on it,
But the murmuring noise
Emitted from the cloud
Seemed like speech
You could not understand.

You step closer, 
Startling one of the women,
And, her gaze straying,
Is engulfed in white light.
She gasps, not yet able
To scream, and is soon gone.
Only her gown remains. 

Without taking her eyes
Off the aurora before her,
The other woman gestures 
To the gown. You replace
Your clothes with that
Upon the floor,
And take the place
Of the lost guardian.

Colors reflect in your eyes,
And through the cloud
You can see the land beneath:
Your hometown, your friends,
The place you once stood.

You know you now reside
Somewhere much greater.

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