A River of Sky—but Why?

More stars in the sky than the atoms on Earth;
more people to come than have lived ’fore my birth.
Since that day arrived, we’ve learned more than when man
first set sail on our journey, when wond’ring began.

If the Earth’s flat, would the planets be, too;
the Sun, Moon, and stars, and the sky—even you?
And would that mean atoms aren’t strange, fuzzy goo,
with multiple stratums—and life’s a flat zoo?

From canyons at night, looking up to the sky
through a gap in the earth formed by rivers once high
which have cut through the land, both the hard rock and sand,
we’re intent to learn more—that’s our journey’s demand.

Why do stars sparkle, and why do some rocks?
Why doesn’t the sea clump like volcanic blocks?
Why does the Earth quake; why does the Sun bake;
Why doesn’t my arm have a head, like a snake?

Some answers, so simple and obvious now,
would not have been learned if no one asked “How?”
The mind is a mystery, much deeper than space;
we’ve more questions than stars, and can barely keep pace.