“The bigger dipper indicates the small:
its handle points straight to the brighter star,
Arcturus, in galactic lactic sprawl.”
He held me as he told me what stars are.

“Now this is quartz that makes a vein for gold.
Here’s lava flow, and metamorphic rock.
The planet’s skin erupts, and thrusts the old
to new extremes: escapement for a clock
that we of human span can never read,
for we can’t see from far enough away
or ponder long enough to sense its speed.
We’re dwellers in tomorrow’s yesterday.”

He spoke some more, but I was watching bones
of earth by stars, ignoring human tones.