Falling Meteorites
© Roger Macdivitt 2010
Nobody can truthfully say
How far, how long and from where?
A product of the universe’s recycled whole
Once, in the cauldron of planetry birth
Only to cool and freeze in the wastes of space
A pheonix and Icarus in one
Propelled and accelerated by distant explosive forces
Attracted and super-heated by Earth’s gravitational pull
Reduced, vaporprised and mostly unnoticed
A brief electromagnetic pulse piercing the atmosphere
Some, mere dust, others like pitched balls
Fizzing into meadows or bouncing into dry deserts
Nickel, cobalt and iron from the stella-fusion of the galaxy
Many older than our near neighbour planets
They fall hourly, only to rust in oblivion
Long before man’s presence was known
They fell and will fall into eternity
More will arrive, in showers or alone
Streaming from the tails of comets they come
To litter the earth or to sink in the waters
And still they come