The Sailor's Dream Poem by Matthew Buchwald

Now I blaze through the requiem of space;
Ruined planets, bleak and wan, hurtle past.
A galaxy of suns echoes the sparkling sea,
Fusing crimson rays, delirious pearls,

Scarring the serene blackness with sharp dyes,
Blasting that bruise the throbbing firmament,
As hard as atoms and the ship I pilot,
It is melting, scalded, green; it is rapture!

I saw the Earth with awful majesty implode
And dissolve in a chrome whirlpool;
With a torrent of tumult the oceans burst
Like the sad hearts of maids in a legend!

I soared through ragged ribbons of meteors,
Cool tears welling on the lips of the ether,
Baneful plasma bleeding the gold and cobalt
Aroma of efflorescent spasms!

For days I listened to the death throes,
As rampaging comets hurtled into suns;
I never dreamed the vengeance of God
Would blast stars into molecules of dust!

I wavered at the edge of the Universe,
Shattered lifeless wrecks came drifting by,
An endless procession of cosmic junk
And corpses wrapped in metal shrouds.

I have seen a necropolis in the void,
And putrefied suns that radiated death!
Are these nameless abattoirs your Tartarus,
Oh you venomous brood of vipers?