20160218 (heaven's locus)

Why should I care more for my

Thirty pound dog and my 

Twenty pound cat than I feel

For those two giant black holes

That combined this week

(Actually a billion and a half

Years ago) to confirm Einstein’s

Theories even to gravitational

Waves? It’s all rather simple if

You’ve been following this blog:

Those two massive globs that

Slapped together each hadn’t the

Complexity of the molecules in

My cat’s nail trimmings. For all 

Their energy, mass, and history

They haven’t enough organization

To be sentient and recognize their

Status as monsters in the dark, nor

Will they ever know it. Yet my dog

And my cat see the world about 

Them, have desires, curiosities each

Appropriate to their states. They

Nose about, get into mischief, 

Knock things over, like vases

(Ceramic twins to the unconscious

Black holes), and move me with

Their intensity, their plotting. 

Their grace. The overly smart

Tell us to worship the universe,

They marvel at stars in their 

Scope and their numbers. For me

This is foolishness only scholars

Can know. My cat who looks out

At the night through my rattling

Loose winter windows sees the 

Stars. Yet the heavens, poor stars,

Do not see her in turn, nor hear

Her purring, nor her galumphing

Down the stairs of this wooden

Fossil. My dog, who expresses

His simple hunger for treats

With every stranger we encounter

On our way has greeted and known

More souls than the Sun, the Moon,

And all lights in the sky; has shed

More kindness to others, to children

Who only grab at his fur as he licks

Toward their tiny hands. Oh, stargazers,

Awake! Do not judge being by eons,

Or mass, or brightness, or volume.

Turn away from the expressly

Simple beauty of light and see

What the lights reveal: worms

In the ground, thousands of times

More individuated than any galaxy;

Birds who not only trace through

The blue, but can change their 

Courses as we watch. Look on 

Your brothers and sisters who 

Can understand what you’ve 

Studied and who have praised your

Cleverness. No body in heaven

Will place a comforting hand

On your shoulder when death

Takes your beloved. Though 

We are almost as brief as the leaves

Of spring, our lives, our carings

Count for more than the energies

Of all heavens’ novae, for they

Do not know and we do.

c. J.S.Manista, 2016