PINEAWEIGH - DAY SEVENTEEN: P.S. Don’t Forget This!

Don’t miss it! Perseid Meteor Shower presents this weekend and if you are lucky enough not to have cloud cover, it couldn’t be more perfect since there is a new moon and the sky will be dark. Sunday night, after 11pm should be the best night but, go ahead, try even tonight. Look in Perseus, in the NE sky, right under Cassiopeia, and be ready for the oohing- and ahh-ing that follows the 30,000-mile-an-hour path of hot as heck space rocks spit from a comet’s tail and burning brilliance across our sky. Don’t miss it!

And now, because, of course everyone enjoys a poem. This one written after my first observation of Perseid Meteor Shower—1983, Silverdale, Washington.

PERSEID METEOR SHOWER

THERE’S A TENT MEET TONIGHT

AT THE CORNER CALLED SKY;

IT’S CROWDED INSIDE

BUT THERE’S ROOM.

WHAT I NOTICED LAST NIGHT

AS I WANDERED NEARBY

WAS THE VIBRANCE, THE SPARKLE

AND PLAIN MOCKIN’ OF DOOM.

BUT OLE PREACHER PERESEID CRIED,

“YOUR TIME’S NEARLY ENDED!

SO, WE’LL SING THAT REFRAIN ONCE AGAIN!”

SHOULD HAVE SEEN ALL THOSE STARS

SQUIRMING HARD IN THE SKY,

BEING WARNED TO REPENT FROM THEIR SIN.

WELL, SOMETHING WAS WORKING.

SOME SPIRIT WAS MOVING.

THAT REFRAIN SEIZED THE CROWD

WITH ITS POWER

FOR NIGHT AFTER NIGHT

TO THE PREACHER’S DELIGHT,

THOSE STARS WALKED THE AISLES

BY THE HOUR.

                                  Barbara Roberts Pine