Dark skies
Time flies
At the speed of light
It was my bag
My big obsession
Telescope on tripod
In bedroom
Window
Dulled
By smeared glass
I stared at and yearned for
The gaps in between stars
Top of the career list;
Astro physicist
Though
Sights more often trained on
The neighbours' brickwork or curtains
Their front doors or cursings
Had a periscope in the bath
I was all mirrors and lenses
Split the light and reassemble
I'm James Stewart with the leg mended
I'm Brian after the band split
Pedantic but
Moon lit and happy
Wearing three pairs of tights
Tracking the rolling night

Thinking of Parsecs
At the breakfast table
I wasn't following what you were saying

Speaking with Buzz and Sharman
Sleeping in the garden
Red filter on the torch
Cry at each rocket launch

Thinking of Parsecs
At the breakfast table
I wasn't following what you were saying

Speaking with Buzz and Sharman
Sleeping in the garden
As space ice cream
Seeps into my dream

Hold up now!
Holy calamity!
The photo
Contained ten thousand galaxies
And thirteen billion years
All squeezed into a small
Patch of the Fornax
Constellation
Panicked, fell back in consternation
This in a single sand grain
Held at the length of your arm
A life changing event
A shove to the chest
As the scales slowly fell
And I knew what meant
In meant octillion religions, life forms and faiths
Unfathomable events, higher intelligence
It meant we're small and alone
And insignificant, and that
Space is what is says;
Mostly vacant

We send calls into the night
But no one will hear them
Musk's car's just going to drift on for eons
I staggered out of the planetarium
Glitching, phasing
The museum cup of tea saved me

Thinking of Parsecs
At the breakfast table
I wasn't following what you were saying

Speaking with Buzz and Sharman
Sleeping in the garden
Red filter on the torch
Cry at each rocket launch

Thinking of Parsecs
At the breakfast table
I wasn't following what you were saying

Uplink to Buzz and Sharman
Sleeping in the garden
A place I'd hide
And sketch Saturn 5

Deep Field View
Revealed, a truth
And ironically
stopped me looking up so much

Deep field view
I searched for days
And lost my sense
time and place

Deep field view
Revealed, a truth
And finally
stopped me looking up so much

Deep field view
I'd rather stew
On who I can reach
And what's concrete