Star Stuff Poem by Albert Ahearn

“The fate of individual human beings may not now be connected in a deep way with the rest of the universe, but the matter out of which each of us is made is intimately tied to the processes that occurred immense intervals of time and enormous distances in space away from us. Our Sun is a second- or third-generation star. All of the rocky and metallic materials we stand on, the iron in our blood, the calcium in our teeth, and the carbon in our genes were produced billions of years ago in the interiors of a red giant star. We are made of star-stuff.”

I am a scion of the Milky Way
Wholly unique to the highest degree
My soul is as old as light-years away
My provenance stems from cosmic debris
I need not religion to guide my life
My quintessence antedates mankind’s creeds
The brief time walking beneath starlit nights
Imbue my soul more than mankind’s prayer beads
Every thought, all that I am is akin
To these heavenly designers birthplace
The very essence, my soul within
Began eons in interstellar space
Knowing who I am and where I came from
Is my greatest joy than what I’ve become.