They lean over balconies,
strain to hear through thick silence,
dangerously close to the edge
of sky and star, where time smudges
into forever, they listen.
It is there. A breath –
a great inhalation of life,
a calm, rhythmic heartbeat.
The universe quivers with delight,
the heavens rock with stomp
and leap and pirouette
until the very planets shake.
Death slinks back to its catacombs
and darkness recedes to its hollow.
Only light remains.
Nadine Ellsworth-Moran pastors a small church in Charlotte, North Carolina, and teaches at Union Presbyterian Seminary, Charlotte.
Image: NASA & ESA [CC BY 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons
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