Contributor: Bet Q. McDondren

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What manner of mineral blip am I?
when eons are seconds
to a star
when the scratching of a planet
drowns millions
when the voices we stream
in an endless flood (it seems)
are so momentary
so fragile
so chaotic
they might only rate
as someone else's wow signal
consigned to the dust bin
unknown
for all the eons before
and all the eons after


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I am enchanted by the idea that the molecules of everything around us have been manufactured freely in some patient generation of stars. We are living concretions of stardust, and I find that both inspiring and humbling.