Nova Ophiuchus

Pile enough of anything common,
And something rare’s bound to happen there.

Say a satellite passes between
You and the Milky Way in dark skies—

It’s the satellite that’s new and rare,
While the Milky Way’s always been there,

And among the twenty-thousand stars
Glimpsed by a naked eye on clear nights

Every few years there’s a new nova,
Such as the one in Ophiuchus

Spotted just a week or two ago.
Stars burn and burn for billions of years

Counted as turns around this one sun,
While you’ll live a few decades at most,

But look out on any given night
When you’re luckily left in the dark.

You could watch a silent satellite
Or the new star that’s started to die.