Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Lights Above The Garden Shop




They turn off the lights at the garden shop
after closing time and the Sun goes down
but the Moon reflects the Sun. Other lights—
traffic lights and store signs—push back the night
and some details inside the garden shop
can be seen if somebody looks closely.





Before closing time at the garden shop
there are bright lights above all the buildings.

The two lights at the top of this photo
are really at the top of this photo.

They are really above the garden shop.


That’s the Moon with Jupiter above it.

My camera had some difficulty
with this wide range of luminosity.

Street lights just a few feet away from me.

The garden shop a hundred yards away.

Two hundred and fifty two thousand miles
to the Moon. And the planet Jupiter
three hundred and seventy million miles.

The snapshot captures a lot of distance.

The planet Jupiter is the largest
planet in the solar system but here
it’s smaller than the Moon and it’s smaller
than the lights surrounding the garden shop.

Images are always in perspective.

The snapshot captures a lot of distance.

A plant growing inside the garden shop
that is trying to understand science
a flower doing astronomy work
without eyes might know about Jupiter
because Jupiter is active across
the whole electromagnetic spectrum
and shines in more than just visible light.

Images are always in perspective.

The snapshot captures a lot of distance.

I wonder what that scientist flower
with no eyes and no sense of perspective
thinks about the distance to Jupiter?

I wonder if that scientist flower
can reach out and gently push a petal
through the ochre clouds around Jupiter
and make a little vortex or a swirl
and enjoy the feel of Jupiter’s clouds
something like viscous against its petal?

I wonder what that scientist flower
thinks about the distance to Jupiter?

Something makes the clouds around Jupiter
swirl and flow into wild and random shapes.

I wonder if plants in the garden shop
think about distance the same way we do?

Something makes the clouds around Jupiter
swirl and flow into wild and random shapes.

Are we in perspective? Can we get out?

























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