Quadrantids Meteor Shower, January 2012

This poem is hard to write. It must contain an audience– a woman and a dog– in the hushed theater beneath the beech tree. It must contain actors just off-stage waiting for their cues. In this cycle drama, there is no villain or victor, only a dust trail in the ether we pass through. It …Read More

Quadrantids, 2012(Credit: NASA/MEO/B. Cooke)
This poem is hard to write.
It must contain an audience–
a woman and a dog–
in the hushed theater
beneath the beech tree.
It must contain actors
just off-stage
waiting for their cues.
In this cycle drama,
there is no villain or victor,
only a dust trail in the ether
we pass through.
It must contain the eager actor
who leaps onto the stage
and delivers his one line
not with a booming voice
but a whisper and a grand gesture
through the scrim
and ignites the funereal gloom overhead
as the audience leans in
and gasps.
It must contain the last trace
of the brilliantly-delivered line
through words
as fleeting as frost.