going under

the dust-ceiling
started to fall in slow motion toward her
looking like meteors
or shooting stars raining down
in colors she’d never seen before
shades of purple
and pink
and under water coral that made her eyes tear at the sight
at the stinging their brightness left her with
she remembers now
trying to taste them
like little pixelated sugar cube snowflakes
on her tongue
but only feeling the cold sterilized plastic
of the gas-mask being held to her face 
she breathed in one last time
watched the galaxy open up
and spread her arms wide like a fairy
or a hawk
letting the lack of gravity send her soaring
into a vast expanse of nothing
and then there was a thick black blanket
of velvet with stars
covering everything
like little pin points of light
she was warm, and then
there was nothing more than dull sound
and a numb and naked body
somewhere far off
or maybe so deep inside her head
that it sounded muffled,
she could hear a drum pounding rhythms
to lead her to safety
a drum was covered in a thick layer of dust
nearly as white as the light that came next