Celestial Ghetto

Saturn fell last night; the wad of putty that held it up broke free

Bounced off the chest of drawers

I on a mattress on the floor, it glowing fine twine curled up around it

One boy rolled about in his sleep

As if unsettled by these nocturnal cosmic collisions

A tiny glowing plastic planet

Made on the other side of this earth

Loosed from the rest of the solar system overhead

In this cold old room, late Victorian house  

Shelves that heave with books cats that chase in the dark

Two sleeping boys

                                                  

Pushing at each other’s orbit   

                                                    

Moonlight creaking through the gap

In the mediaeval patterning 
on those heavy faded curtains

Dust motes like a thousand meteors

                                             Coruscating in some outer province

Of an unknown nebulae

That is the future