Stargazing

Stargazing

born
to stargaze
born
to be enchanted
by the majesty
of the night sky
conditioned
from infancy
to believe
we
instead of the sun
are the center
of the solar system

for the curious
painfully
heartbreakingly
gazing
through myths
superstitions
and primal fears
to discover
some better truths
of the sun
for ourselves

do the lies
and the time
of our lives
wasted
on discovering 
better truths
diminish
the beauty 
of the evening sky?

in other words
does it 
should it
make any difference
whether the christmas gift
came from mom and dad
or from
santa claus?

would life
have been better
accepting the myths
of the stars
admiring them
from beginning to end
in faith
instead of wasting
so much goddamned time
agonizing
over what's true?

do the deceptions
taint
the night sky's
majesty
as you 
undercover
the lies?

should we resent
those who lied
or do we forgive
their falsehoods
born out of fear
to sit
alone
on calm evenings
basking in the beauty
of our own
better truths?

do we forgive?
for as much
as the beauty
of the night sky
is in some sense
the same
regardless of our understanding
the way
it plays out
down here
these millions of miles
away
the beauty
of things down here
isn't always
the same

does the universe
see the same
beauty in us
regardless
of how we understand
the beauty
in it?

does our truth
down here
make any difference
to the stars and moon
up there
looking back
at us?

are the stars
as indifferent
to our follies
as we
seem to be?

is the beauty
of the night sky
any better or worse
any different
whether it
or we 
are object
or subject?

i suppose
the easier
thing to do
is accept
what we were told
about the beauty
of the night sky
instead of squandering
our serenity
on figuring it out
for ourselves

yet
there's a lot 
of sickening rancor
going on down here
distracting
from the serenity
in the night sky
when we can't decide
on what the stars
and the moon
are