-Untimely observer-

Due in large part to atmospherics
Assisted by human romanticism
And low-lying carbon emissions,
Mars appeared particularly red, its pinprick
Piercing the deep northeastern sky, glinting

As if backlighted upon the stage of God.

I watched for a few minutes
From the yard nearing the tree-line,
Calculating the distance with naked eyes,

When a fast moving overcast swept between

Mars and me.

My attention turned to the direction

Of where I deduced Venus and Jupiter hung,

But both were blocked by the tumbling,

Impenetrable wave of heavy weather.

With time running fast against me, I lingered blindly

For a spot of sky,— a tear in the fabric's architecture

And whatever treasures such a breach might yield.

Basta! This pall is a steely weave, unyielding,

Barbed and clinging like a nettle

To the underbelly of the firmament!

And so, as it goes for this night, its planets and stars,

Its revolving attitudes in warm romance and fierce detonations,
I could wait no longer.––– Basta!

                                                    Swansea