Trench

Poe thought the skies were too young
To give us us more light than dark.

Give them time, they’ll make more stars.
But they might not. Those who know

Them best these days think they might
Well be done or near to done.

These are all the stars you get
(And most you can’t see for lamps,

Screens, signs, and winking jets).
Leave me high and dry. Up here

I can still see the dark trench
That scores our own disk of stars,

Our sky bridge of them. I’ve read
From those who know the trench best

That it’s just dust. The real beast
Lies in the bright heart past dust,

Where it hulks and eats the stars.
But I like to think the trench

Makes a good sign for what’s up.
The dark moves. The dark can quench

The birth of more stars, the dark
Like a wind that blows the dust

That held the gas that birthed stars.
There’ll be no nights walled in light.

Each time we peer through the back
Of a dark there is more dark.