Counts By Michael Shen

Our galaxy silently thunders

Like one hundred billion wildebeest

Across an interstellar Serengeti  

Exceeding one million miles per hour,

Destination determined unknown.

                                                            And when the wildebeest no longer are

                                                            And the plains go silent

                                                            How shall we describe our universe?

Within this journey,

Our sun and earth

Ring the milky way

Soaring a half million miles per hour

Every two hundred million years,

Twenty times since birth.

                                                             In the Himalayas the glaciers melt

                                                            And coastal waters rise

                                                            Visiting upon millions drought and flood

While rounding our galaxy

Gaia yearly waltzes our sun,

Six hundred million miles

At sixty-six thousand miles per hour.

                                                            Toxic wastes excreted by bloated industry                                                                                       Corrupt our eco and human bodies

                                                            Mocking our hallowed halls of learning and justice

And our rock pirouettes gently

At a thousand miles per hour

In its daily revolution.

                                                            One deigns not to give another the time of day

                                                            Because of some look or way or being

                                                            What numbers signify ignorance and greed

                                                            But of poverty, misery, death.

And as I thread the crowd

Trending south on Broadway,

Suddenly doves flood the sky,

Spiraling left, wheeling right

Filling the sky as one.

                                                            One thousand trillion synapses fire

                                                            As I pause, mouth agape,

                                                            Joy and awe.