chaos theory

did we not
start & end with chaos?

or was the point before creation
empty, exquisitely still?

can there be any order at all
in anything besides this: none.

absence, then, is the only answer
to meaning.

it is the first—and last—
order.

Marisca Pichette

Marisca Pichette is a queer author based in Massachusetts. More of her work has appears in Strange Horizons, Clarkesworld, Vastarien, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Fantasy Magazine, Asimov's, Nightmare Magazine, and others. Her poetry collection, Rivers in Your Skin, Sirens in Your Hair, was a finalist for the Bram Stoker and Elgin Awards. Her first novella, Every Dark Cloud, is forthcoming in March 2025 from Ghost Orchid Press.