It seems unfair, a waste,
To journey like a shooting star,
One thousand cosmic years through space.
To smile one time, just once,
Emit your brightest light and disappear
In daring curvature to nowhere,
Like that actor on the stage
Who ends the play to no applause,
And bows to empty seats, then glows.Unfair, a waste,
But a child may chance to stare
And see that daring curvature, remember?
Which may just set this child in motion
Remind him of those cosmic years, of freedom,
And jolt his mind to point up north
Beyond the curtain of prediction,
Dare to shed the bonds of earth
And curve the course of expectation.
Unfair? A waste?
My eyes to shooting stars, to motion.
My heart to one that just passed by,
Softly traveled, bright, secured,
For century after century,
From way before the beginning of time.
Judea Pearl is a UCLA professor and president of the Daniel Pearl Foundation named after his son, who was murdered by terrorists in 2002. www.danielpearl.org.
