expand

 snow gently falling in sapphire night

our world chilled to slowing

time for inhalation, catching of breath

a quiet explosion of wonder

that commands our attention

away from busy-ness to reality

of what-we-call time

as a local phenomenon

personal, now stretched out

to accommodate our need to be in awe

of what is so much more than

tasks or profit or accomplishment

but time to be present in vastness

time expanded to behold the universe

dark of night

the ‘great white way’

was once the Milky Way

pondered by shepherds

their musings giving connection

to vastness above and beyond self

millennia before angels brought

‘tidings of great joy’

‘dark of night’

now conquered by fear-induced

electric lanterns that blind us

to that experience of belonging

to our universe and hasten

our separation from it

in our small fears

we conquer ourselves