Courtyards on Jupiter

Dec. 12, 2012

Courtyards on Jupiter

In my days at school,
     I spent a semester on Jupiter,
          'Cuz I heard studying abroad
               Looks good on a résumé.

I studied the stars,
     The finer arts of gas and light,
The truths of single molecules
     Colliding,
          Splitting,
               Dissolving in the mad winds.

I met a few girls.
I write them,
     Time to time,
          But they never write back.

You see,
     On Jupiter,
They've abandoned writing,
Letters,
Alphabets,
Sciences,
Mathematics,
Facts
     And figures,
Arts
     And physics,
Statistics,
Law
     And government.

Their universities are simple,
No study halls
     Or libraries,
Just endless courtyards,
     Floating in the atmosphere,
Dissolving in the dust
     To reform again,
Now embedded near the planet's core,
     Now hovering atop the storms,
          A breath away from space.

Their motto:
     Veritas est Vita.
They've done away with knowledge,
     Replaced it with the simple act of being,
Living to be torn and reborn
     In the planetary maelstrom,
 Loving every moment
     Of their volatile lives.