Meteor Shower, 2:00 a.m.

How many meteors I must have missed
when I went downstairs and having pissed
I put a heavy coat on and returned
to sitting on the roof, a front-row seat
on outer space. A flying object burned
for over a second and I felt complete,
I don’t know why. An hour in the night
and I still don’t have a meteorite,
but they’re going by at one a minute.
It’s a message from the infinite,
there’s a high velocity in the void.
It’s fading out the second it appears,
a diversion for the unemployed,
a dying streak and nothing you can hear.

A close one left a trail, I had a dream
like this, a green intensity of light,
the brief appearance of a laser beam.
I won’t forget the meteors tonight
materializing with a quick dissolve
of stardust in the air. The earth revolves,
it moves through space. I hear a conversation
on another roof. I hear the seals,
I’m near the waterfront, the constellations
out in force. I wonder how it feels
to go so fast and hit the atmosphere,
the arriviste a flash in the pan, you’re here
one second and you’re atomized the next.
Arrivals and departures in a context
of the cosmic, I’m uncomprehending.
Here’s a meteor, I know the ending.

Flaming out above a quiet town,
the migratory star-dust coming down.
The rain and meteors and even leaves,
and I’m in love with nature I believe.
The earth is turning at a thousand miles
an hour in a post-atomic vacuum,
it’s a power glide. My domicile
indifferent, there’s a woman in the bedroom
sound asleep, uncommon, comatose,
the dinner party was an overdose.
While a meteor is not a comet,
no resemblance, it’s not even close.
A comet trailing an eternal return
and barely moving, it’s a coming attraction
floating in the night for days. I learn
about the universe, the interaction
of the forces, physics and the friction
and the gases. It is like a ghost,
with an evening close to science fiction
when a meteor comes and then it goes.

The fireworks occurring in November,
I’m depending on peripheral vision
and my nerve in order to remember,
wasn’t it a fortunate decision
not to fall asleep. The Leonides,
a new moon too, a man with heavy eyelids
and remaining conscious is a strain
for some of us, a green light in the brain.
The meteors are like the facts of life:
for some of us they are completely obscured,
others see a few and get a lift.
If I saw more clearly I’d be cured.

Watch for falling flashbulbs in the sky,
it’s a heated moment, the momentum
of the cosmic forces and the fly-
by-night debris of light. The heavens sent ‘em,
they’re a sign. A disappearing white line
with a rush. What does that remind me
of, I’m thinking of cocaine and Icarus,
it isn’t too vicarious
at two in the morning. A galactic witness
to the limitless, the hit or miss
approach of meteors, I’m feeling witless
and I’m only human, more or less,
an earthling who is finding the profound
wherever I look. I see it on the ground
and overhead, the orbit is ubiquitous
I’m curious and it doesn’t quit.
While a meteor is meteoric,
I don’t want to say it’s allegoric,
no one I know burns out in a second.
Then I’m looking at a lunar crescent,
it’s alluring, taking days to fade,
like most of us its fate has been delayed.