“For this, we built a star-searcher/and launched it/into the galaxies:/Mirror upon giant mirror/sifting through time”
To the men and women of the Space Telescope Science Institute
Surprise does not come
with the news
that our hypotheses
were flawed:
These careful calculations,
physics resting on theory
hinged to proofs
of a still-guessworthy nature
demanded more testing.
For this, we built a star-searcher
and launched it
into the galaxies:
Mirror upon giant mirror
sifting through time,
bearing our hopes—
and our fears—
that it would reflect
back to us
something more
than ourselves.
We have flung this pinnacle
of human achievement
into space, searching
for black holes,
gravitational waves,
the cosmic dust of star-seeds
among the rumpled sheets of planet-beds,
hoping to unravel infinite riddles.
And here we discover
neither our dreams
nor the mirrors
were big enough:
We are overwhelmed
by light
we did not
expect to greet.
Marla Dial Moore has written poetry peripatetically for more than 20 years as a means of surviving global, local, and personal news events. Her work has appeared in Voices de la Luna, Journal X, the San Antonio Review, and other publications.
