Opera Length: the aliens will see our nighttime planet by Isabelle Kim-Sherman (17, California)

 ​And they will think that the splatter of stars encrusting
the wine-dark bruising sea are painted
from the tears of gods The aliens will see
​
our nighttime planet and marvel at the natural
wonder of the fluorescence that latches on and grows
like lichen like a parasitic fungus like a shrimp’s
blood-black waste vein

It will not occur to them
that the luminescent gold is something sick 
and dying 
it will not occur to them
​
to check if the pearlescent incandescence
is a distress signal or maybe
the dazzling encore of an ill-fated heroine
​
waving as the curtain falls