What's Up There? Poem by Nicholas Peter

Simple gas balls,
No-
They're more aren't they?
You're sure it's not just a bunch of lights?
They don't look any different from,
a street lamp.

They're like dots on the sky's holy,
black canvas.
You're saying some sort of god put them there?
I guess that does make them holy.

But really, I don't see the huge deal,
I mean how could Whitman sit there with,
a learn'd astronomer?
I don't get it, truly.

You're telling me all this,
but you haven't shown me,
So I don't get it.
How amazing they can be,
by just words?

Go outside, you say?
And look up?
Will I see something?
Will it be worth it?
Fine, I'll go.

He walked outside,
and I watched him look up,
and he kept looking,
until he sat down in the grass,
eventually laying down,
looking up...

... he didn't return until the morning.