Twice As Much Starlight Poem by Rachel Dacus

- The universe, say surprised astronomers, has twice as much accumulated starlight as can be explained by all the known stars and galaxies. - Newspaper article,1998.

We have twice as much starlight,
it seems,
as stars to explain it.
This can only mean
a hidden conflagration
burns in the cosmic whirl.
Where can it live, this occult fire -
not at the center
galaxies are escaping.
Not at the frontiers of space
where new suns are being pioneered.
Where does the pure pulse of light beat,
racing out of nowhere,
a night light switched on in the void?
There is evidence that deep in the spin
of atoms is a tiny sun, a heart of radiance.
In the same way,
I have lived through days
when there is twice as much love
as people around me to explain it.