AQUATELOS A Thesis Presented to the Faculty ... - Cornell University

home (or wherever)
awestruck and hurt
and returns each day
knowing nothing once more
sharp stick
magnifying glass
sugars of heat
color
9.
Broaching the mark by twenty parsecs
we rammed our confession through to the maker.
He was pleased with something, I don’t think it was us particularly.
But it was clear a condition had been met, perhaps a test passed—
beams flaring like grave molecules of the first sun gave way to us.
It was all the firework we’d craved in that place.
Thirsty marble, patted till cracked, we puzzled over you the longest,
with your dubious forest, your sapience of insects, your tiny
hidden teats.
Now sit in our begging bowl and allow us a spell of finalities.
Soon we will have to move so fast we will only virtually exist.
There go the rings: goodbye rings!
There the moons: goodbye moonies!
And asteroids: adios!
One last time you recount for us the clear stars above,
the breath at hand stirring our eyes until we could look at nothing
for a long time, flickering like comets in solar skeins.
That we once stood gazing at last at nothing, swaddled, benign as
caterpillars—
That we had the sense to stand still for so long, the clear beneath,
the stars at hand—goodbye.
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