it’s snowing again
soft white haze
settling on black rocks
it happens every year at this time
and when the snow stops
our atmosphere –
nitrogen, methane, carbon dioxide –
will be gone
and the stars will no longer twinkle
the usual gang are outside
braving the weather
for their fix of sky
though the sky is black and not blue
though they can see it only through polycarbonate visors
we’re too far away to see which star is earth
forty-nine a.u. –
it’s enough to hide among the heavens our origin
even the sun is just a pale white dot
they should learn to let go
we can never go back
this is our home now
beneath Charon’s ghostly light
Excellent; really like this one. Nice gradual slingshot from the mundane outwards.
By: Paul Graham Raven on December 1, 2010
at 11:44 am
thanks, although I think the language is a bit too mundane in places. But the idea works.
By: iansales on December 1, 2010
at 1:06 pm
No, no; that mundanity is what makes it, IMHO; underlines the fact that these are people just like the reader, doing something beyond the reader’s sphere of the possible.
By: Paul Graham Raven on December 1, 2010
at 5:09 pm
You think so? I’d not thought about it in that way. I admit I do like clever use of language, and try to do that in my poems. But perhaps sometimes just saying it plainly does the trick just as well.
By: iansales on December 1, 2010
at 5:12 pm