Astronaut
    (July 20, 1969)

For too long we had watched them fade, the flickering lights
That led along corridors to an empty palace,
Till in the end, even the monuments of nature seemed
Part of a conspiracy of universal malice.

Night seemed unassailable with its endless galaxies,
The last gateway through which we could arrange an exit,
But that silence, which should have greeted the first
    tremulous footfall,
Is shattered now by the measured murmur of the heart beat.

Copyright © 2009 Ulick O'Connor All rights reserved
from The Kiss
Salmon Poetry
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission