astronaut

All the world's a stage to the actor, I hear,
but to the astronaut, all the universe is a mirror.
I search for myself in the sun and the stars-
I read the sky like my own private memoir.

And when I take flight to the moon up above,
I search for myself in the earth that I loved,
small now and swaddled in clouds like a child,
suspended in darkness that goes on for miles.

My astronaut heart swallows all in its sight.
I inhale the dark and I exhale the light.
Hungrily straining to swallow it all,
I strive to escape from the stage of my soul.