Dance on a Comet's Tail

 

Dance on a Comet’s Tail

(“For by one Spirit all of us—Jews and Greeks, slaves and free—were baptized into one body and were all privileged to drink from one Spirit.” 1 Corinthians 12:13)

If I could put on the asteroid belt or
dance on a comet’s tail I could show you
all the constellations are just stars once
your perspective has changed. I never could name them;
the dots never connected and all I saw were spots
in the sky.

But small as they seem
they are farther away
than you dream in a lifetime of fantasy.
If you could wrap your arms around Mercury
or Venus you would still see only
scattered and shimmering dust in the void
that smells like rust or rice,
maybe burnt carbon if you could breathe
hard enough.

Hug Mars the next time you are on the way
to display your vast knowledge of divine plans
and the meaning, the beginning, the purpose (we’re
listening) of life. How deep are the footprints
of the average citizen seen from the closest wanderer
to earth? How long will they live while the light travels
across multi-verses to your rods and cones?
And who will hear your pronouncements, crimson
and dry, across the spotted night, broadcast like
a bursting firefly. Might you find another theme?

Once you have finished your preamble,
perhaps you can scoot up to the table where
the rest of earth’s miscreants
laugh over our shared experience

and sing the Celestial jigs and reels that began
before the Spirit
brooded over the face of the deep.