Oblivious to the gravity of science,
ancients strung our system on a beaded wire
— ordered in distance from our own world
The sun was closest in this perfect model
traversing one round circle every year
We couldn’t see past Saturn
— nor Saturn’s own glorious rings of reflective ice
Aberrations of wanders across a backdrop of silent watchers
— mysterious entities called stars
I can imagine generations on my fingertips,
and imagined faces in places I’ve never seen
turned all towards the sky.
Caveman returning to a cave from the tribal hunt of a wooly mammoth
glancing up while thanking the gods for fresh food
Baroque-era musician standing on a balcony of King Louis XIV’s palace
gazing up while musing over his next masterpiece
Chinese astronomer before the time of Johannes Kepler
staring at the fire star (Mars) while scratching his head in puzzlement
Child on a Texas driveway tilting her head up
scanning the sky and asking her parents on what those dots mean
Generations have come and gone,
I say — hold on to that gaze above!
Though your feet are planted firmly on the ground,
know that we all are wanderers in space and time.
Some lines of this poem were inspired by the work of the poet Saba Husain, notably her poem The Missing Planet. You can find her work here: https://www.amazon.com/Elegy-My-Tongue-Saba-Husain/dp/1947896687
