Voyagers

Two eagles soared amid the Jovian spheres
before they hurtled past the heliopause,
becoming so unthinkably remote
from Sol, the photons pouring from his throat
now travel a million million miles to cause
those regal twins to lift their silver ears.

They focused in on rings of ice and rock,
great clouds of red, volcano bands the size
of California, moons with skins so bright,
they outshone even Venus’ lustrous white.
These sights had mesmerized the many eyes
that dreamed of rising like a kite or hawk.

Then when they’d reached the solar system’s brink,
one took a backward look and snapped a shot,
a picture of the place their architects
called home, a mote among the sundry specks
revolving round what dwindled to a dot,
its radiance continuing to shrink.  

These travelers shall eternally convey
a pair of golden records with the sound
of trains and Bach, of wolves and whales and fire.
Who knows if any being will admire
two earth-born pilgrims launched from sandy ground
to skim the thermals of the Milky Way?

_________

(Appeared in The Chimaera.)