n.i.m.b.u.s.

lights

one day,
the stars began to disappear.

at first it was only a few,
silently blinking out
within a sea,
of dazzling phosphor fire.

most people were either too preoccupied to notice,
or enrapt by the advent of electricity -
captivating each city it lit,
with deceptive eccentricity.

all across the world,
cities began to glitter,
like the gold they pretended to be.
they scarred the earth,
with hideous gridlines;

the stars,
the precious and innocent stars,
stabbed by every spotlight,
cleaved by every cathode,
lacerated by every lightbulb...

with every theater and restaurant,
with every nightclub and stadium,
with every lively venue
that desperately needed
thirty-five spotlights pointing skywards,
- another star died.

timid astronomers submissively rebuilt their observatories,
further and further away
from the encroaching corruption of light,
while our false delusions of grandeur,
swallowed more and more of the sky,
like a greedy glutton of false luminescence.

faster and faster,
the constellations that had inspired our ancestors,
guided intrepid explorers across the seas,
captured the hearts of dreamers,
were erased from existence,
obliterated in massive chunks and tears,
leaving a firmament stuck in permanent twilight:
empty and featureless like an ignorant brick.

cosmic symphonies of colour and light,
the transcendental beauty of the galaxy -
smothered in tainted halogen,
strangled with sickening skyglow,
by ugly, glaring clusters,
of cluttered streetlights and lamps.

the final stars were fading.
even when only a handful remained,
people were too busy watching TV
to care or even notice.

the stars that birthed our galaxy,
our planet,
and all of us -
were forgotten.

* * *

today,
blackouts occur,
and troubled citizens
report peculiar lights in the sky
that scare them.

'yes, yes,' concurs the hotline,
'perhaps aliens, perhaps the Devil.
'we will keep you informed.'

adults...
grown men and women...
seeing the stars for the very first time.

for all the filthy light that floods our cities,
we have become truly blind.