A Brief History in Time

You wonder what you will
say and then the words
come as water, flow

across an object,
shape a feeling, define
darken and cover over.

You wonder, having spoken, if
all the words voiced in the world
fill your ears with the roaring

you hear in your heartbeat
from birth, a pulse
seeking understanding.

You have seen the earth
suspended in a universe so large,
light illuminates only the spheres,

not the dark of space around them.
You understand why the heart
weakens like any muscle and dies.

It is possible that all those
radio antennae pointed outward
to find some other language

reach into a mirror
and the static is our own words
coming back to us.

Round and blue, a planet
hangs before your gaze, the earth
gauzed in airwaves.

You wonder
what you will say and then
your ears begin to hear
it.

Published in The Mind’s Eye