I. Haibun no Hoshi

Alone we strode, drifting through the endless void. From the gargantuan nebulae of our youth we emerged, setting forth in this vast expanse. We flare up, sending messages to our long departed cousins. Some of us have swelled by our pride, expanding until we devour our children whom we hold nestled in our embrace. Others ended their lives in tremendous bursts, lighting the night sky with their anger. Then, they spent out their eternities in a variety: some burnt down when the fires of their rage had cooled and waited out perpetuity, spinning in hyperactivity. They pulse out their cries of woe, inundating us with their brackish sorrow. Others simply accepted their time and formed the clouds which birthed my cousins and I. Even further, some of us could not accept our deaths and in their vain grasping at immortality they fell in upon themselves. Their strange squeals announce them, for in their quest to be everlasting light, they have become the dark harbingers of death. I can hear their cries constantly.
After these billions of years, I can feel my demise beginning. To my small children who rely on me, I am sorry for what I shall do to you. To my future children who shall be born from my ashes, I pray that you live your life, then pass calmly as I shall.

At eon’s close
How shall I end?
Fall’s setting sun.