August 22nd, 2004

Artists' rendition of the Cassini spacecraft approaching SaturnAn electrified trash-can floating above Saturn
just detected two new bodies draped in ether,

unseen during the whole burnt span of human
history, from caves to ziggurats to skyscrapers.

Dwarf-shade of brooding orbs shelled in ice,
fading in the witch-glow of the double suns

but this is all that we could have hoped for—
unnamed twins dodging the spittle of comets.

And you and I, who could not even pay our
taxes or mark our own ballots without doubt

will sleep with such virtue tonight, tumbling
with breakneck grace through the frigid wastes

like the tangled curls of prehistoric maidens,
lying where nothing has been built or dreamt.

Copyright © 2009, Michael Meyerhofer

Image Credit: NASA/JPL

Michael Meyerhofer's second book, Blue Collar Eulogies, is forthcoming from Steel Toe Books.  His first book, Leaving Iowa, won the Liam Rector First Book Award (Briery Creek Press).  He is also the author of four chapbooks.  His work has appeared in Asimov's, On Spec, Ploughshares, Arts & Letters, River Styx and others.