Ode to Euphoric Nothingness
to Sophie Xeon (1986 – 2021)

you who wanted to see the full moon
rising at four to hear rooftop nocturne

you who perforated pop performance with
plastic-pitch processions of pots & pans 
               you PC priestess of permutation
               your PVC poetics of production

you who told me it was okay to cry
-stalize to exhale underwater to lie 
naked in nacre to soften every layer 
of bladed shell to bubble to break
surface

              you told me that i could be 
              anything anyhow anywhere any time

you who fell through the sky
dashing every constellation
into euphoric nothingness

               your arias taught us astrology
               how our celestial bodies 
               love & grieve
               in the same gravity
               how we orbit
               without organs

you who showed me a universe 
sutured from stanzas & sexts 
a canon carved out by a coven 
of cosmic children 

               i hear your descant in every event 
               horizon, in the eaves of eclipses,
               in the cityscape alpenglow. 

you who became immaterial
you who became 
you who 
you                            immaterial
you          became 
you

About the author

Andy Winter (they/them/theirs) is a non-binary ice goddess living in the warm tropics of Singapore. Their works appear or are forthcoming in Stellium, Strange Horizons and beestung. They were a finalist for the 2020 Transpoetics Broadside Prize. Find them chilling at whispersinwinter.wordpress.com

Photo by Danny Lines on Unsplash.