When you see by radio telescope
Double-helix circles round a death star
Pause to re-consider –
One thousand light years have already passed
The blinking of your eye might add
Another ‘lifetime’ interlude –
So put an end to sorrow
And cease to fall for euphoria –
No reason to get excited
But you risk a sober mind
Obsessively circling extremes
Like a moonlight firefly
A firefly with a tail
One thousand light-years long
Gone in the blink of an eye
Instead take hold of your mood
And set aside resentment –
Lips now warm as snow
Once promised romance in a fever
Old thoughts re-hash old enmities
Of extinct invisible foes –
Stars do not speak our language
So cannot reason with themselves –
Volatile mineral gases
Hotheads and burnt-out creatives
Who consider their birth and passing
Of inflated importance to human affairs
.
Bernard Saint
Illustration: Claire Palmer
.