Asteroid impact
Watching that asteroid hanging in the sky every day
taught me how precious each moment could be,
but it wasn’t always that way.
Seeing a mass
one hundred kilometres wide
bearing down all day.
all night
does little to inspire hope.
Knowing it would only be a year until
the New Moon crashes down
left a vacuum,
a world devoid of
love, hope, compassion, touch, scent, sound, vibration, energy, and faith,
where there are no more spectrums
and no more starts or finishes.
One is left with only now.
Only a collection of ugly, unshaped moments
to be carved and whittled and molded into renewed brilliance
glittering defiantly in the face of extinction.
Of course, the New Moon will come down
and all of this will come to bear as just
a path to death and transformation
and letting go of comfort is never easy.
There are still people staring up,
thinking and maybe believing
we can steer the New Moon away from Earth.
Maybe we can even mine it.
Maybe we can strike a bargain with god while we’re at it.
Only a man can think of escaping by a nut hair
and have the gall to make a demand.
But,
I understand the Great Fear.
I understand looking up at the asteroid
and knowing how much time is left,
how every minute past is a minute lost
and every minute lost is one where a sense goes unused.
Some sound unheard,
some sight unseen,
some flower unsmelled,
some fruit untasted,
some beauty untouched,
some emotion unfelt.
Of course,
sometimes
feeling nothing,
ignoring everything
on an abstract timeline is what allows for existence;
in a world with an ageless earth and an indeterminate lifespan
everything can be deferred.
Hearts can go unbroken,
promises can be be kept,
hopes never failed,
and
dreams never killed.
I, however, want to know I haven’t left money on the table
when the New Moon,
a hundred kilometres wide,
blasts through the atmosphere.
Whatever my life turns out to be,
I want my senses burned out and emptied.
I don't want anything left unfelt.
I want to
stand and feel
the heat and
the shockwave and
the final rush
before I become dust.