The wise Chinese Saw your finest final light With their own eyes. To them you were new And incongruously bright— So they honored you With a name: Guest Star, As if you had wandered Into their well‐mapped skies From some far country, Bearing radiant news. I wonder if they mourned Your sudden loss From their inky night, Thinking you’d gone Forever After such a short time. And yet— After two millennia You are still here— A spirit preserved though dispersed In a chaotic cloud of heat And a multitude million particles Glowing teal and red, Streaking subzero space With your persistent presence.
Julie Sumner is a writer who posts new poems, prayers, and devotionals on her weekly blog, windowonwords.com.
