Gravel roads, an open field, and the evening orange blend when the sky so gently touches the Earth
A place of logic and reasoning, a place where every last breath is replenished by rebirth
Where gravity keeps you tethered to the ground
Admired by the moon, but a disciple of the sun - a globe spinning round and round
Mockingbirds fly overhead as they mimic their melancholy song
The night air is growing feverish for the sweltering heat's return won't be long
Yet vines grow over my skin, I'm becoming numb and growing colder
An insatiable longing for more than this burns inside like a slow smolder
Until this very night, during a confessional to the stars -
I am lifted to the constellations, carried past Mercury and flown by Mars
Venturing deep into galaxies until this rocket lands in an otherworldly place
I find myself kneeling at the altar of the most untamed reaches of space
I fear I have left everything I once knew behind,
All it took to gain some sanity was losing my mind
Comets roar overhead as their dripping fire blazes my skin,
The cosmos dance around each other to the tune of the atmosphere's violin
I ask the moon to linger, to hold back the tide of the coming dawn as my nightly plea
And the crescent curves its lips to whisper that it only breaks the rules for me
I see the silhouette of art in the asteroids, creation awakened in the depths of craters
There is lust upon the shooting stars, love within the planetary layers
Maybe for the first time ever, my belief in God actually feels real,
Perhaps there's meaning to life that only the strangeness of space can reveal
Dark matter floats by and kisses me on the cheek,
A rare supernova, the first to have the faintest idea of what I mean when I speak
The deep ocean ahead extends a warm invitation, now I'm begging it to take me to its' deep end
These uncharted waves a stranger to me, yet I navigate with the familiarity of an old friend
Until I peer above and become fearful of the look upon the moon's face -
One of bittersweet sympathy as if it always knew this was what would take place
So I propel my legs faster than they've ever gone, my lungs gasping for air
I send up what I hope is an acceptable mortal prayer
Yet I'm no match for the satellite that carries me away,
Could the darkness and terror of space have really led me so far astray?
I'm brought back and set down, I look around and recognize so little
Condemn the constellations but my message is lost somewhere in the transmittal
The seasons change out of my window, neighbors come, neighbors go -
Age's white horse visits every so often but it never releases me from what I now know
Oh the normalcy of it all becomes almost deafening,
Voices of reason stand with their open embraces, their constant beckoning -
To show me that gravity didn't change while I was gone, in fact, I wasn't gone very long
Yet their explanation only makes it feel all the more wrong
My house looks the same but the inside doesn't quite feel like a home
At least not the way it did before I was taken to that spacial biome
Perhaps it's merely a come down, the effects to subside some years from now
A distortion done to my brain, a hallucination I've disavowed
I used to keep my window open, should a comet decide to roll in with the night breeze
A small lamp burning for the praised tale I had spun until I got up off my knees
Somewhere out there, maybe in a parallel universe, the shrine I visited perhaps lives on -
In a calm and serene eternal night, avoiding at all costs the break of dawn
Though my eyes may play tricks on me, I swear that just every so often,
The vault of the skies looks down on me, cloud edges slightly softened
A fleeting star shooting across my vision blinks ever so slightly
To remind me in superstitious hushed tones that my memory serves me rightly
Though that secret garden is watered elsewhere, some plot unfurled
Spring is coming here to Earth and I must come back into this world