A History of Light
Through the telescope:
Crater of the moon
The rings around Saturn
A light floating in
Radio waves of the first explosion
As I stepped back, an image
Quick constellation of a figure
I knew
Traced itself for a moment
Among the night sky fires
I remembered the search
For a lost girl, years before
In the forests of upstate New York:
How we looked down thin paths
Ended by walls of mist
Lacing itself in layers between
The trees
How we were thanked and sent
Away: only the locals would keep looking
Now I had found her
But could never bring her back:
The angle of sight lost
Light-years between her fingertips:
I had found her
But can never bring her back
Copyright Credit: Mark Kirschen, "A History of Light" from Montemora Magazine. Copyright © 1980 by Mark Kirschen. Reprinted by permission of Eliot Weinberger.
Source: Mark Kirschen: Last Poems (Montemora Foundation)