The End of Night 

~Inspired by the 2008 National Geographic article on light pollution

 

Artificial beams shine upward, flooding

our evenings with the vacant

glow of urban life. We’ve forgotten

the river of stars and planets flowing

into the rest of our universe just beyond

the reach of the shallow night

sky. Astronomers claim we need the dark

to balance our circadian rhythms

of wake and sleep, to keep us steady

like gravity. But what does science know

about darkness or time or how dreams devoid

of hope wither and die when they’ve lived

as long as I have without light?

 

~Pamela Taylor © 2013