Catherine Phil MacCarthy goes stargazing – and philosophising  –  in this poem from her new collection, The Invisible Threshold, published by Dedalus Press. Limerick-born, she studied at Trinity College, Dublin, and the Central School of Speech and Drama, London. As well as this fourth collection of poems, she has produced a novel and edited Poetry Ireland Review.  

 NIGHT SKY

Paint at night those

stars in a frosty sky,

one brighter than another.

~

Sirius, Orion, Great Bear.

accustom eyes to deepest pitch

that delivers the Milky Way.

~

The more it’s scanned,

this sprawl grows fathomless.

Too late to catch low in the south –

~

as if the sound made

walking the lane just now

frightened it away –

~

a star falling and seconds later

another, lit trajectory

scorching headlong

~

over the western rim.

Yet, up above the heavens are

crammed with constellations like

~

so many freckles jostling for place.

Could it be some night

we are not there,

~

gone without trace,

planet earth, an empty house

as the face of night prevails,

~

unforeseen and certain

from the beginning

as only death is?