Spiral galaxy NGC 4622When stars
are burning burrs
on the panther
of the night,
and their fire
is reflected
in our eyes,
space is
room enough
for the flutter
and the tick,
each whorling
fingerprint
leaves tracks
upon the sky.

And space
is room enough
for the clicking
bones of time:
our flesh
a fall of suns,
the earth
a burning burr,
the flutter
and the tick
subside.

First published in Aliens and Loves
Copyright © 1983, Bruce Boston

Image Credit: NASA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

Bruce Boston has received the Bram Stoker Award, a Pushcart Prize, the Asimov's Readers' Award, the Rhysling Award, and the Grand Master Award of the Science Fiction Poetry Association. He is the author of forty books and chapbooks, including the novel Stained Glass Rain and the recent collection Flashing the Dark: Forty Short Fictions (Sam's Dot, 2006). For more information, please visit his website: http://hometown.aol.com/bruboston.