HYDROGEN AND HELIUM
from the window of a taxicab
gazing heavenwards
i wonder
at spectral hydrogen clouds
collapsing and condensing
exploding into
violent starlight
and i ask as i look
at the darkest night
when was it ever a human right
to burst forth foolishly
seizing the night,
with pathetic displays of
these passing street lights?
i don’t know.
while above and always
elemental filaments of
vapour and dust
erupt into
vicious flame
and, knowing nothing of night,
burn endlessly,
populating blackest skies
immeasurable stretches of the
vast void
with fiery insistence.
meanwhile,
neon lights flicker through mist and rain as
headlights streak past
reflected in swollen gutters as
streetlights sputter
embarrassed by the
flaming hydrogen and helium
so far away
so superior.
the evening continues.
Author’s Bio
Born and raised in Saskatoon, Gavin Liam Logan is now a high school English and Musical Theatre teacher in Calgary. He lives there with his wife Meghan Keating and their daughters Arianna (7) and Kenlea (4). Gavin’s lifelong fascination with the unfathomable nature of space and astronomy often features in his poetry.
