A comet comes — 
an Occasional Guest
forewarning of woe,
incising firmament with
Sol-suffused tail,
cobalt-blue or green neon,
slingshot signpost
of outermost void,
emissarial ghost light
of vitreous emission,
plucked Odinic eye
plunging ever-deeper
into eternity’s pool:
harbinger of disaster,
hot semen by Orion shed.
Prophetic & catastrophic,
wane of empires evident
in astrologer’s augury,
astronomer divining
universal composition
as a haruspex might 
coax truth from 
cooling bladder’s gall.

A comet comes — 
an Occasional Guest
whose visit invariably
forebodes misfortune.

[Scott J. Couturier is a Rhysling-nominated poet and prose writer of the weird, liminal, and darkly fantastic. His work has appeared in numerous venues, including The Audient Void, Spectral Realms, Tales from the Magician’s Skull, Space and Time Magazine, Cosmic Horror Monthly, and Weirdbook. His book of short stories The Box is available from Hybrid Sequence Media, while his collection of speculative poetry I Awaken in October: Poems of Folk Horror and Halloween is available from Jackanapes Press. He works as a copy and content editor for Mission Point Press, also co-editing the anthology series Weird Fiction Quarterly. Currently he lives an obscure reverie in the wilds of northern Michigan with his partner/live-in editor and two cats.]