Monday, May 31, 2010

aurora borealis

close to midnight down at the lake
when the beach was still grassy
from a high water line (the water's
all gone now   this will never be repeated)

someone has a bag of gas station fireworks
and excitedly we light them up like candles
in the sand   expecting to be in awe of
manmade splendor on an august friday night

lying in the grass we watch them burn
shooting feebly into the dark sky
extinguishing red and green sparks
and after five minutes it's all over

someone, disillusioned, says
there goes a hundred bucks
and we all start to get up   brush off
wander away back up the road

until the black sky where our own creation
(a feeble magnificence) had just been played
spreads out its vast inky canvas
and every single colour pours onto it

northern lights usually dance
but now they just spill across the sky
a giant oilspill reflecting light for millions of miles
covering the whole space   replacing stars

we stand now on the beach    faces turned up
to watch what God can do compared to
our gas station fireworks and manmade attempts
at creating something truly magnificent

No comments:

Post a Comment