The Beacons Everywhere – a poem by Garrett Carroll

The Beacons Everywhere

We exist in places
where near-death lives, always right outside
the walls, the mulling metal vessel,
where fear is far less than feeling the flicker
several light-years out
sending signals our way, signals our way, 
signals our way.
 
There's ghosts in all
the components and radio waves and rays of light varying in size; 
spilled ink performing gyroscopic manouvres,
fairies and will-o-wisps
and spirits of the deceased
providing comfort for the lone pilot,
and Jesus spending his last days 
lighting the starship's corridor lamps
for one more planet,
one more star, one more star closer
to the unpopped bubble of heaven.

Garrett Carroll is a poet and writer whose work has previously been in Star*Line and Utopia Science Fiction Magazine.