Ancient Light

A story inscribed in the constellations of the punctate canopy of night Perseus astride the winged Pegasus Hurtling to save his fair maid Andromeda from the beastly Cetus the seasick sea-serpent While her folks, Cepheus and Cassiopeia gawk dispassionately Poor parenting enshrined above us The pancaked 2-D IMAX look of the heavenly vault belies the relevant numbers— Trillions, quadrillions of 3-D miles between, My retinas bathing in light decades old Not a preschool connect-the-dots but a giant mobile of impossibly remote thermonuclear furnaces turned cosmic Rorschach test My eyes drink the mother of pearl galactic smudge in the telescope and I feel you gaze right back Ancient light, yet a staring presence a Mexican standoff of unfathomable dimensions Telescopes at 600 hexillion paces, pardner Don’t blink Is it my imagination, or your mind? Crazy quarks’ quantum entanglement making instant “spooky action” at a distance 40 million light years away Hundreds of quintillions of miles whatever in God’s name that is There you are again; I feel you Verizon Universal Consciousness Connection That’s going to be a heck of a phone bill but I’ll be long gone by then I think 8/1/16