-one step beyond-

(the planets and the stars and the stuff in the middle)

"stuff" is a scientific term; well,
maybe not by the book, but
I've heard an astronomer say so on educational television.

he said: "star stuff".

––later, I questioned the reasoning behind colorizing the images.

I told them: "you know, the pictures don't always have to be pretty".

I'm informed by the precision of their instruments as to where

my house stands if ever I find myself far from home,

and under the everlasting skies I've fallen into the dark part

of wonderment with the best of them.

I've been scared out of my wits.

I've considered the visible planets of the neighborhood,

peered into the dark expanse where Neptune

hides its frozen face of hydrogen, its lick of cyanide
now data-brushed in a lovely taint of powder-blue.

but I want to see Neptune in its menacing form; chalk-

grey and lifeless, akin to the semi-erased blackboards
of the cold institutions which first defined it.

I’m one step beyond the spokes of the galaxy's wheel

revolving around the burning nucleus I can never reach.

I must be dreaming or dead, but better to dream.