The Fantastic Skies of Orphan Stars

I rejoice to live in such a splendidly disturbing time.

—Helen Keller

Perhaps I’ve been searching

too close to ground.

Perhaps I’m wrong to think

every answer lies beneath my feet.

Giving life should be enough to ask

of one blue sphere spinning in the dark.

Oh, to be an orphan star,

to see my birthplace from the outside,

the blue-white brilliance

encircled by yellow spirals,

the whole spinning parent galaxy,

and then to move slowly away

into the safety of the void.