The Dying Sun Poem by Mary Champion

In 5 billennia,
give or take an eon,
our sun will begin to die.
Its measure will expand
steadily swallowing
its closest companions-
melting Mercury,
vaporising Venus
and, quite possibly,
engulfing our dear Earth.

It will grow until its heart is carbonised.
The black hearted star will spin helplessly
as its outer layers drift off into space
and it shrivels into its white dwarf phase,
slowly dying, drained and debilitated -
all its nuclear fuel exhausted -
inexorably cooling from white to black,
its close compacted heart
morphed from coal to di'mond.

Should there be an observer
on a privileged moon
circling a gas giant,
they might be a witness to
this final setting of the sun -
its hour of utter darkness.