Aspiration

By Cliff Lake

 

Aspiration

 

What have we found among the stars?

Have we touched the face of God?

Were we beneath notice?

Is our presence yet known?

Are we the new cry between the darks?

Or the long echo failing?

 

Have we begun the longest quest?

Sailing forth to conquer vast space,

Only to find our vaster insignificance?

What mites we are!

Scarring a pebble, a grain,

Trumpeting such triumphs to no one.

 

Or are we inspected, dissected, rejected,

A trash species ill regarded,

Ignored and soon forgotten.

A bother on the far arm of a lost galaxy,

Put far to irrelevant reaches,

Where we can do no harm to the greater.

 

Or have we yet to wake sleepy races,

Monstrous intellects foreign,

Rising to find our encroachments,

Then to decide our fate,

Final expulsion granted,

Or our paltry existence allowed yet.

 

Will our impertinence be our saving?

Will ignorant bravery suffice?

Our frail containers flung unknowing,

Seeking knowledge too great to comprehend,

But sought anyway,

That we too may rest one day sated.

 

What can be found among the stars,

More powerful than the rose petal,

The instant loyalty of the new puppy,

The laugh of a child unseen?

Perhaps one day I may seek the stars,

But for now, I await the silent thrill

Of this year’s first full snow.

That will be enough.

For me, that will be enough.

 

Cliff Lake 11/5/2023

Copyright © Clifford Lake 2023

Location: Dalton, MA, USA

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