James Webb Telescope Reports To Earth

When the first rockets left Earth

I watched in black and white

the black and white light

that was immense space

beyond our blue planet

a unique marble

purie cat-eye shooter

paint-by-number planets

put a ring around them or

several moons

designer planets painted day-glo

I wanted to be an astronaut

and greet aliens

using something like sign language

or mind meld

now we’ve seen

in infrared light

black holes sucking

the birthing of galaxies

a star nursery

exoplanets on a graph

water vapor in their atmosphere

we looked backward billions of years

to see the future

explode and implode

in this infinite universe

where we stand on the shore

fishing pole in hand

hurling through space.