Telescopic Dreams

It stretches mind to understand How telescopes are time machines, Have God-like powers quite profound, To plumb sky depths like submarines. To go where no man’s gone before, To see a past that’s clearly been, Discover facts before man’s birth, Track photons in brave’s moccasin. Light travels fast but stars aren’t close, The nearest stars “light years” away, So thinking you know they exist Is really gross naivete. A “nearest star” could die tonight, Man wouldn’t know for four more years, With super bright decaying flash, A fellow traveler disappears. Expanding shells of photon waves Man thinks is star, just light from star, While unbeknownst to human eye Their fiery sire is now sidebar. If speed of light hides past so well Can telescope help us to know? Well yes, but in another way, For human eye sees mostly snow. Where telescopes see stars, though dim, Our bare eyes fathom mostly cloud, As onion layers peel away We learn much more what is allowed. Each layer reveals history, As ancient records birth things new, How telescopes are time machines, Not books, but God's dreams come to view. Brian Johnston December 15, 2016