Starchild

Not a molecule there is
But once was bright star substance
Shining in a universe of old.


And even we
(with all the dull utility
Of flesh and bone)
Even we once shone
And graced an ancient night
In galaxies before our own.


So when I laid you in your cot tonight
And marble moonlight glazed your skin with silver leaf
I left the curtains open to the sky;
unwilling to disturb the moonglow's magic on your face.


Ghostly it was, and you transformed before my eyes;
Starchild.
Creature of heaven; milkwhite in darkness.
The cot cast zebra shadows on your frame.


I shut the window lest you float outside,
riding the moonbeams home while I was turned away.


Tiptoed, I left the room
But could not shake the hauntings from my mind,
The memories imagined from another world, another time
When heaven's light was part of mine.
I long with all my heart
To be transformed;
To break the shackles of a shallow mind,
The harness of a cold and hollow heart,
To be consumed,
And burn with fire again.


(c) A McN
 
This was written many years ago but I only found it recently in a notebook.
The astronomer in me has always marvelled that every cell in my body owes it's founding chemistry to a long lost star explosion where hydrogen and helium were forged into heavier elements. To look at my young son shining in reflected moonlight brought back something of that wonder - we are all creatures derived from light.