Image Credit: NASA, Jeff Hester, and Paul Scowen (Arizona State University)

Brightness falling,
Ancient light of distant galaxies
Crashing relentlessly,
A catastrophe aeons to unfurl;
Worlds bathed in brilliance
Cast by a thousand suns
Racing to their doom;
Millions of years, billions,
A cosmic blink while
Crawling from the murk,
Lifting eyes to the heavens,
Civilizations rise, empires fall,
Whole species fade away;
Still the novae explode,
Spinning gas and dust into
The shadow of the nebula
So the lovers may park and kiss
And hold each other under
A clear, starry night.