Starlight -- Notes on the Particle Physics of Life

By Clara Blair

We are not stardust --- we are starlight.
Ephemeral beings like mayflies,
We think we have all the time in the world.
Unwittingly, we may be right.
All the time we have truly is all the time in the world.
We are lucky not to know the future. Lucky, too,
That we often forget the past -- my past, your past,
The experience of millions who came before us.

We hunger for life, empty with hope that we will be filled
One day. We love our bodies -- always changing.
Fragile prisons. Delicate dreamships.
They are all we really have, but they betray us like things that
Hate us. The instrumentality for all we know or can imagine,
They are beyond our control, too complex for any one of us to
Maintain consciously even if we had complete directions.
Our only vehicle for exploring the cosmos, vessel of our minds,
So easily damaged, crippled, destroyed. Designed for decline:
To grow, blossom, wither and decay.
Starlight.

The glory of existence is to know that we are starlight.
Recycled in the ineffable crucible of the universe are
Lovers and madmen, healers and thieves, children,
Demons and saints. Our science solves mysteries
That lead only to questions. Distinctions declared
Between humans and animals, between animals and plants,
Always shifting, revealing new combinations, new forms --
All starlight.

All moving and changing, bringing and being wonder, fear,
Pain and joy, laughter and love. All we can know, if we know
Anything, is this moment, this instant when the starlight is,
Palpably, you and I. We are starlight, every woman, man,
Cat and blade of grass. To be is to shine for a time
And be transformed.

© 2002 Clara Blair