The Perseid Meteor Shower

Will I see it this year?  Will I go out and watch,

Craning my neck to catch a fleeting, flying glimpse

Of a long-ago object now passing in the night?

Will I see it this year?  This annual shower of pieces

Of a long-dead object now moving away

From all that I know?

I resolve to make the effort,

But it will not be easy to give a guarantee:

Weather, aches and pains, company,

All my interfere,

Causing me to put the craning and pondering

In the night. 

--August 11, 2013