Celestial Bodies and the Distance Between Them

Peering through the eyepiece,

a galaxy is a blurry spot in my field of vision.

A little gray smudge in an otherwise black circle

surrounded by a sprinkle of starlight.

An unimaginable distance lies between

there and here,

and hundreds of years have gone between the first eyes

that saw it and my own.

My pupils open to embrace more stars.

They wink and sparkle,

conforming into shapes traced long ago,

first into dirt, then on parchment.

Blurry galaxies teem with celestial bodies,

weaving together places far and near

and shrinking the distance between

the obtainable beyond and the impossibly close.

Copyright 2019 – Laurie Marshall

This poem is being posted as part of the #100dayproject. Find out more here.