Mom, We Come From The Stars Poem by Dennis Ryan

October 2000

Mom, we come from the stars, and when we die, we return to them—
so the ancient Greek superstition goes.Plato puts it so eloquently
in the Timeas:we walk upon the earth a second time as the opposite sex
if we live lives of little consequence.I don't know if I believe in reincarnation,
the Greek version, or any version at all, a second sex.But I do believe
you walk the earth in my vicinity, and if only I could open the right door,
walk down the right street, or look through the right window—well, this is wrong,
all wrong, yet I sense you near me, in me, always—Was Telemachus misled?
You called three times—more that last month—then nothing.And then
I knew—you had returned to the stars.Now, your light shines brightly
in me.Perihelion to your sun, your son, I feel your fiery trace within.