First Sight
When the power went out over LA,
People in a panic called the police
About their first sight of the
True night sky.
Articles were written,
In slightly mocking tone,
On the ignorance of
Those who had never known the night.
I, another city dweller,
Half a continent away,
Understood the terror and the tragedy.
For I, too, have never seen the Milky Way.
My stars are sparse and
Separate.
My constellations few.
My night is lit by city lights,
My sky is far from true.
I read, feeling pity
And affinity
With people far away from me,
Of their first unnerving
Glimpses of what lies
Beyond our world.
And thought:
It is not stupidity,
Or a lack of education,
That causes such consternation,
Unlike what those articles imply,
Over such a simple thing as
An unimpeded viewing of the night sky.
It is instead, a truth unsaid:
That it's been many generations
Since much of any Western nation
Has actually been able to see darkness.
The night is lost to us.
Of course our first viewing of it
Would cause alarm -
We fear what we don't know.
My stars are sparse and
Separate.
My constellations few.
My night is lit by city lights,
My sky is far from true.
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