Once is Never

2022 AbSciCon Creative Science Writing Contest
Second place in Poetry

“Once is Never” by Yunha Hwang

Oh, what a strange dream.
I looked in the mirror,
and nothing stared back.

And then I looked up,
not a single star in the night sky!
Just a smothering utter abyss.

Then it struck me, if there
is nothing beyond us,
did we ever exist?

If we happened just once,
then einmal ist keinmal,
once is never.

Never had I felt so alone,
in this singular sequence of
mistakes, that we call life.

How bizarre, to have lived
and not lived at all.

And how disorienting, to disappear
before I can awake from a dream.