<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div class="">Space—</div><div class=""> <i class="">through the eye of the Hubble</i></div><div class=""> </div><div class=""> I</div><div class=""> </div><div class="">I caught her eye—</div><div class=""> for a split second—</div><div class=""> deep and black as space,</div><div class=""> as she caught mine</div><div class=""> and spoke the words, “Thank you.”</div><div class=""> And in that instant, in that blackness, I saw the universe,</div><div class=""> as if my eye were Hubble itself, </div><div class="">looking deep to the very edge of things,</div><div class=""> as if I had no choice but see her sorrow, </div><div class="">her beauty, as she saw mine—</div><div class=""> in an instant.</div><div class=""> </div><div class=""> II</div><div class=""> </div><div class="">It was imperfect, at first,</div><div class=""> the Hubble and one might argue, still,</div><div class=""> as the images it receives and passes on</div><div class=""> bend and stretch our psyches</div><div class=""> as if we too were made of light,</div><div class=""> push us into that cloud of unknowing</div><div class=""> where words fall weightless</div><div class=""> and awe is all</div><div class=""> there is—</div><div class=""> and mystery.</div><div class=""> And so we feel</div><div class=""> the beginning,</div><div class=""> we feel </div><div class=""> our heart</div><div class=""> break open. </div><div class=""> </div><div class="">III</div><div class=""> </div><div class="">It was the most mundane of encounters.</div><div class=""> I had held the door for the wheelchair bound</div><div class=""> elderly man, I took to be her husband—</div><div class=""> nothing strange, what anyone might do.</div><div class=""> But the moment was not ordinary.</div><div class=""> We were coming, all of us, from the same place.</div><div class=""> And though we were strangers</div><div class=""> and likely to never see one another again,</div><div class=""> we had shared an hour </div><div class=""> that left us, at once,</div><div class=""> profoundly different </div><div class=""> and exactly the same.</div><div class="">We had born witness</div><div class=""> to the birth of stars—</div><div class=""> star nurseriesthey were called,</div><div class=""> giant nebula given ancient names like Carina,</div><div class=""> the ship keel constellation of the southern sky</div><div class=""> within which mountains and canyons</div><div class=""> of frozen gas and dust might rise or fall </div><div class=""> near twenty trillion miles—</div><div class=""> one called Mystic Mountain</div><div class=""> whose double spires</div><div class=""> are topped by infant stars</div><div class=""> flinging their signature streamers of gas</div><div class=""> untold distances into the heavens . . . </div><div class="">oh, my . . . oh, my . . . how even this attempt </div><div class=""> to restore a speck of weight to our words falls short</div><div class=""> and we are left, as if our hearts were supernovae</div><div class=""> blown wide open and brilliant</div><div class=""> before fading toward death.</div><div class=""> </div><div class=""> IV</div><div class=""> </div><div class="">And so it was as we left the theater,</div><div class=""> my dear companion weeping</div><div class=""> and I nearly so, </div><div class=""> stood in the corridor</div><div class=""> unable to move </div><div class=""> toward the stairs</div><div class=""> when a group</div><div class=""> approached,</div><div class=""> led by the</div><div class=""> fallen patriarch,</div><div class=""> pushed in his wheelchair</div><div class=""> by one I thought to be his daughter,</div><div class=""> flanked and followed by several others</div><div class=""> and finally the wife and mother</div><div class=""> whose small stature belied</div><div class=""> the universe I found</div><div class=""> in her eyes.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- Bill Denham</div></div></body></html>