Perseid Performers

The Perseid Meteor Shower.

Performers from space-time’s deeper regions

enter Earth’s atmosphere, quicksilver suns
rise, thin rays ripping through the night’s repose.
Strands of briefest flash incise this serene
enveloping canopy to delight
in milliseconds universal flare:
drama lines the night, fire fills the air.

Montana big sky was there that fine night;
each adjoining star was a watchful eye
to this August rain of cosmic sparkler.
Engaged in such kinetic starlight play
otherwise rock careen earthward, roil
realms of staid space into a bright array.

Scored gleams of midnight grain, star-cloud salvo!
How quickly small rockets disintegrate
over the edge of nighttime’s fixed nadir.
Wiry white stone streaks, etching velvet
ending a vast, cold orbit of debris:
ruptures in the still of night...reverie.

(Perseid Meteor Shower: Acrostic)

Reviews

[ranscan]

I was struck by the way you worked the acrostic form. Your piece dances the limitations to its advantage, and displays well its subject and theme, playing with the language of its science. It is of course the difficulty of the subject matter, the artful presentation, and the persistent flow with grammar and punctuation so well attired, that I awarded this work so highly. Thank you for entering it into my contest.

[K.R.]

Brilliant!