Poem by Jim Culleny

Death of Star HD 62166 & It’s Nebula

Although you are distant

………….. distant                  distant                      distant

death-of-2440

I can see by your past aura
against a black further distance,
the most distant distance

I can see by your billowing
halo of expanding gasses
fluffed like God’s pillow
that you are ruled by laws
that also rule terrestrial things

I see the colors of your vast radiant shedding
and realize the force behind that shedding
is a predicate for everything that’s blown apart,
comes apart, falls apart, dissipates, uncomplicates,
is broken down, pulled down, unspun—

it’s hard to wrap a mind around
the truth that this is where all things,
every brilliance built and done,
fought and won, are heading,
except in tiny human scope
which mounts a persistent
counterforce of hope

Jim Culleny
11/13/16

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