A Near Infinity, Sonnet #393

A near infinity away a rock

Lies on the surface of a blasted moon.

No one will ever see it, but it’s there.

An asteroid will slam nearby — the shock

Will leave only a crater or a dune,

Slowly cooling in its star’s blinded glare.

In every sky scraper a fire escape

Stacks thousands of risers and treads of taupe

Or sage, sometimes both, lined with painters tape,

And handrails of pipe never gripped with hope.

Millions of miles of stairs on our planet

Made just in case, which men will never see.

Four dimensions count the hidden quiet,

Fill the near infinite with the empty.

Galaxy PGC 6240 (Hubble Telescope), Sonnet #270

One doesn't believe in the galaxies
Because they cannot speak. They ran away
And left us with nothing but dimming seas
Of light (not much of that), the random ray
Of heat, glow of illuminated gas,
And the supernova's vestigial mass.
Cataclysm: stars collide in silence
To the humiliation of science.
Lying awake, I go there every night --
A Lagrange point between planet and sun,
Steadfast along their centrifugal bight,
Worlds parsecs away, not unlike this one.
Things move in space but what does space move in?
What probe scratches the universe's skin?