It’s Quite a Skill to Lose Perspective

It’s possible, just,
Without telescope
Or binoculars,
To make out the smudge
Of Andromeda,

Some two and a half
Million light years off,
The farthest object
You can see bare-faced,
Also the nearest

Giant galaxy.
You’ll need a dark sky,
Of course, and patience
With your own vision,
But that’s not the point.

The point is, you can
See Andromeda,
Witness spacetime’s sprawl,
And also feel rage
When someone curses

At you in passing.
This is wonderful,
That you can roll through
Such a range of scales
Inside one small skull.