Worlds that Orbit Stars other than Our Sun


They’re almost always too far away. They hide
in the light of their parent stars. Wobbles—
fluctuations—betray them. See? We told you
not to make waves. They hope no one will notice
their attributes: strange groves of macadamia,
castles of velluminous cloud, parapets chased
with benign commentary, flying oratories. 
Some are balls of gas whose atmospheres
swirl around storms that endlessly fall apart
and recreate as their own centers; some may be 
like us, lukewarm and damped, viewing ourselves
through our own dark lenses, trying to focus
starlight into a point of brilliant flame.


©2007 F.J. Bergmann

"Worlds that Orbit Stars other than Our Sun" appeared in Alehouse 2007.

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