Polaris

 

Polaris

The universe gifts its space to us,

It’s particles too,

Only so we may live inside its vast ocean.

Breathing out starlight and water vapour,

A nebula in our lungs.

We sit under the stars and wonder what could possibly be out there

And the stars look back,

Wondering how we could be so enamoured with them,

When we have all they do

And so much more.

 

A star can’t fall in love,

Not in the way we can,

All it can do is shimmer from afar,

Sending warmth so we may live,

Light so we may see.

Living with and seeing one another.

So that we may hold our palms together,

Touching like tectonic plates,

Stomach bubbling like a geyser,

The stars can’t do that.

 

 Planets can’t start wars,

Mars spins in solitude

Its given name a curse,

To be associated with man-made hate.

When it watched as we were birthed,

Moon colliding with Earth,

Sending skipping stones along the vast lake of our solar system.

Mars knows hate isn’t why we climbed from the water.

Hate isn’t why we sheltered together.

Risked our lives to eat together.

Hate is never why we climb from the deep.

                                                                                                              

The moon can’t miss someone,

It can only remember.

As our footprint stays etched into its surface

Like lovers names cared into the bark of a tree.

An echo of our ancient aspirations,

A primal urge to exist,

In any place which we can exist.


And some nights.

Most nights.

It can catch the glimpse of a telescope

Poised directly at its body

And it wants to give something back,

But it does not own anything.

So instead it borrows the light from the sun,

So our nights aren’t too dark,

And the sky not so empty.

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