First Light

That stars come into this world alone
    	is true,
but it is also a lie.

How many atoms break, crash, fall, collide,
	    and coalesce
before that first light?

How many tides of the great black sea
	    drew them 
to their reunion?

How many breaths on dandelion seeds
	    never 
let them subside

until they conceived a star, heavy 
	    with the company 
of the universe?

Then, like all things, they break away
	    into fathoms 
of darkness.

Their cries still resound
	    in the space
between moments.

The light of the long-dead
	    fills the sea,
enduring into eternity,

to remind us that, truly,
	    stars pass away,
but they never die.

Written in the 2000s. Inspired by the concept that every atom in our bodies was once a part of a star.

freestyle, musings, nature, non-rhyming, short