Death Echoes

This is a brief double echo poem.

The drip, drip, drip of scarlet time,                 Time
Scatters the voices of dead stars,                 Stars
Through corridors of cold hydrogen,               Hydrogen
That resound with the shrieks of death.          Death

Reverberates across the ebony void,              Void
Scatters atoms of oxygen,                            Oxygen
Exhaled by interstellar beings,                       Beings
Whose lungs cannot take a free breath.          Breath

Exhaled into the interstellar medium,              Medium
When creatures of their own kind,                  Kind
Removed the protective helmets,                   Helmets
That let them inhale life’s pure breath.            Breath

Exhaled in halls of interstellar time,               Time
Stains red molecules of cold hydrogen.          Hydrogen