Open your eyes and the universe wheels.

Close them. It’s still as a winter’s night, peaceful but for the pounding of your heart.

Open them—spinning stars, the Earth a sapphire streak, the moon a silver comet, the darkness as crystalline as the meteor that severed your umbilical cord.

Close them—pray.

Tim Boiteau is a Writers of the Future winner and author of the novel The Nilwere.