Planets align and fall

This evening, for barely an hour, Venus and Jupiter hung together in low in the western sky before slipping together beneath the horizon. Poem within poem.

Planets align and fall

On the western rim of the sky,
worlds ply, ships bright as stars,
sailing into night, falling
over the tumbling sun,
streaming their beacon-light
in the dark of the sun’s wake.

Time flows differently in space
a million miles extinguished
in the beating minutes of a heart,
in a hand, fingers curled, a cage,
butterfly wings open, close,
the headlights of a passing car blink,
and a world is gone.