News from the Ultra Deep Field
by Stephen Bunch
Odysseus drinks alone
in a bar in Topeka.
Over the horizon of his glass,
the television hovers, muted,
flashing pictures from the Hubble,
images from the Beginning
of Time, says the crawler
along the bottom of the screen.
The one-eyed bartender
winks knowingly. Or blinks
unwittingly. Who can tell?
The universe expands as Odysseus
chews an ice cube,
but the distance on the interstate
from Salina to Kansas City
does not change,
and truckers travel through
the void of a prairie night
not hearing the sirens.
On a plateau in New Mexico,
the Very Large Array
listens for news of the Wanderer,
somewhere between Ilium and Ithaca,
somewhere beyond the gradual
ascent of the high plains,
sometime before last call.