<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="">Stardust</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">What’s in a star? We are.</div><div class="">All the elements of our body and of the planet</div><div class="">were once in the belly of a star.</div><div class=""> We are stardust.</div><div class="">15,000,000,000 years ago we were a mass</div><div class="">of hydrogen floating in space, turning slowly, dancing.</div><div class=""> And the gas condensed more and more</div><div class=""> gaining increasingly more mass</div><div class=""> and mass became star and began to shine.</div><div class="">As they condensed they grew hot and bright.</div><div class="">Gravitation produced thermal energy: light and heat.</div><div class="">That is to say love.</div><div class=""> Stars were born, grew, and died.</div><div class="">And the galaxy was taking the shape of a flower</div><div class="">the way it looks now on a starry night.</div><div class="">Our flesh and our bones come from other stars</div><div class="">and perhaps even from other galaxies,</div><div class="">we are universal,</div><div class="">and after death we will help to form other stars</div><div class="">and other galaxies.</div><div class=""> We come from the stars, and to them we shall return.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- Ernesto Cardenal</div><div class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">January 20, 1925 - March 1, 2020)</span></div><div class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>( Translated from the Spanish by Jonathan Cohen)</div></div></body></html>