Stars of a Long Now
by Wulf Losee

The last edge of the sun dropped below the planet's curve.
Its light lingered, pale and blue above the western rim,
a refracted violet tone high in the eastern skies.
The car engine clicked as it cooled in the desert night.
As a net of watching stars crystallized above us,
fogged by the haze of some distant city's lights, you spoke:
“It's hard to find the pure darkness any more.”

We are like the others who have wandered in these wastes,
who named these stars with dreaming voices from a deep time.
A goddess holds this golden age in her palsied hands.
Soon her time will pass, and hidden stars will be revealed.
Nomads will watch these lights in the sky of the long now.
They will see new dreams in the clear night and choose new names.