This poem was published by the Muddy River Poetry Review in their Spring Issue

JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE

A flash, an explosion and the trip begins.

Off to find the morning of the universe,

when the world was diapered against exploding stars.

Black holes filled with empty darkness,

memories of a big bang before everything was anything,

before fish swam or birds flew,

before you and I decided to walk upright.

Pictures of our past before there was a beginning.

Light and darkness swirling together.

No stars yet to wish upon,

no answers given,

no questions offered,

no voice booming “Let there be light.”

Is there collective memory,

dreams of a past before knowledge,

a world without form,

a longing to belong?

Fire will be discovered.

We will come down from the trees.

We will build houses reaching the skies.

We will hold each other close to our skin.

We will learn the ways of evil

and try to remember the good.

We will shoot past the moon

in search of all our yesterdays.

 

copyright2022/Beverly Magid

cannot be reprinted without permission