Ode to a Shooting Star

I watched a star fall from the sky;
it caught the corner of my eye;
and with a twitch, my head upturned
to see the stellar missile burn:

I saw it speeding ‘cross the sky
ripples waking in the clouds
dark behind the moon's caress
whose falling brilliance nighttime shrouds

Settling somewhere east of here
headlong towards horizon's rift
behind the evergreen's divide
there burnt and buried heaven's gift

Oh, the world beyond the trees!
Oh where that star was headed for
if I could roll on sea white clouds
if I could get up there and soar...

To burst aflame with light and sound!
And rumble as I plummet down
To see the World and I unbound
Till it makes sense, so small and round

And better still the heads that twitch
Towards the sky as I unveil
The majesty of milkwhite flame
That beckons from my head to tail

Across the world my ashes drift
Across the seas, across the nations
My life is now the world’s and yours
For beauty’s gift is inspiration.