Silent Journeys

The universe settles into itself,

and this old Earth turns itself toward night,

like a clock advancing time, the stars and

their constellations rising to repeat

their silent journeys across the heavens.

 

In the darkness ensuing, an eagle, perched,

cries out from his nest in the trees beyond,

and a lone loon echoes back, “I am here;”

a vixen pokes her nose out from her den hidden

along the ridges, her eager kits yipping behind her.

 

These are, perhaps, reminders of who we are, settling

into ourselves, pausing now in our own journeys

taken alone across a universe we cannot comprehend,

lost in its vastness moving forward, toward what end?