elsewhere in the darkness

listening closely

from here, so far away

sending technology’s greatest

eyes into the

carefully calculated distances

searching for the slightest

hint of microscopic life

or just the basic building blocks

  hope travels a long way

  for the alien heartbeat

  the fragile movement

  that might exist

  under ice,

  in a gaseous cloud

  or elsewhere in the

  darkness

the hope here is to

live long enough to find it

lest we lose our own

and the eyes return

like a dog from fetch

with a stick in its mouth

but no one to give it to

(Image from universetoday.com)