Flyng At Night

five billion years away a planet turns, turning a million years this side of the planet and my heart beats each beats a million years the other side of another planet the distance that shortens the years as we watch a foreign body five billion years away a billion years passed a universe caught in time an eagle flaps its wing each flag a million years pass that side of the planet time is where you are it walks away from you as you walk away from it inspired by Flying at Night Above us, stars. Beneath us, constellations. Five billion miles away, a galaxy dies like a snowflake falling on water. Below us, some farmer, feeling the chill of that distant death, snaps on his yard light, drawing his sheds and barn back into the little system of his care. All night, the cities, like shimmering novas, tug with bright streets at lonely lights like his. Ted Kooser