Your Sky Part

Part of the charm of Rey’s The Stars,

Published in 1953,

Is its accuracy—and part

Of that accuracy’s own charm,

Some three-score and ten years gone on,

After so much on this planet

Has altered, after so many

Lives started and lost, is it shows

So clearly the point Levi made,

As others had made before him,

That Earth’s lives are pitifully

Brief compared with that of a star,

Even the rare star that behaves

In such a way as to arouse

Human suspicions about its

Eternity. You can use Rey

Today, tomorrow, your whole life,

If you care to, your whole long life,

If you get one, and still you’ll find

The stars arranged in their same ways.

Part of that charm, then, is knowing,

That all your nights they’ve been burning,

Some exploding, past your notice,

And part of the charm is the dread.