Looking back

Winter nights are long strung together
Perhaps a word of daylight spoken
There's little sunshine in this weather
If the day's gloom was even broken

But then you step into the crisp night
You brave the cold for some chore perhaps
Wrapped by a coat and there's little light
You look up and feel yourself collapse

For now the covering clouds have lifted
You breathe out and far beyond you, stars
The universe of self has shifted
Above are Jupiter, Venus, Mars

So think of your sun and its story
the system old, and so vast it stuns
Yet in that wide expanse of glory
almost all the lights you see are suns

Stretch out your mind into the distance
Encompass the great and feel so small
Ponder your limited existence
What was, what is, and what shall befall

As you stretch your wonder there in thought
Are there other worlds among the black?
If there other life that nature brought?
When you look up is someone looking back?