Griffin Wells

Waring School

Grade 10

The Biggest Question Ever

My brother and I are shuddering in front of the space heater,

wiping the Carmex stains off of the Scholastic: One Thousand

Questions About Dinosaurs book so we can

leaf thru and find the page where there are big letters

that tell us when the Earth will be engulfed by the sun,

and life as we know it will cease to exist.

At night we sweat and stick our fingernails into the drywall

thinking about…how it will finally feel

for our 5 billion year old skin to Touch!

the Sun! time to replace our bodies with camera metal

and apply that intergalactic SPF twenty zillion.

Uncle Jeff flicks the mala beads hanging in front of his dashboard

while we repeat “Wenus!” and tug our elbows and laugh until our tailbones hurt.

But I stop laughing when I catch a grimace

from that unswollen sun, sweetening

the apricot tree in his front yard.