Star Sailor

It’s numinous out here, Ground Control—

Stars and moons, comets and nebulae;

All sprawled out like ornate calligraphy.

Home is a blue dot cradled in the curve of my window.

Outside the door is a cathedral of everything uncharted.

Earth, millions of miles, too small for my hunger.

Space, trillions of miles, too large for my voice.

But this vastness does not crush, it cradles;

A lullaby made of light and distance.

The stars do not know my name, but I know theirs;

They burn and are made from the same stuff as I am.

The moons do not know my face, but I know their phases;

They pull at oceans, and something in me too.

The comets do not return for me, but I have mapped their paths;

they sign their names across the sky in arcs of fire and ice.

The nebulae do not breathe, but they carry new life;

I did not see their beginning, but they will see my end.

I am not looking for a place to land,

I have already made this space my home.

Send love to everything I left behind.