southern skies

J. H.

did you know that in australia

the night sky is different from ours?

they have the same moon, yes

but they have different stars

i’ve always admired the night sky

for one, it reminds me how small i am

how in the grand scheme of things,

we’re all specks of dust on a floating rock

on the other hand, i like how it doesn’t change

when i’m away from home, i look up at night

and suddenly, the distance isn’t so far

but south of the equator, it’s different

here we have orion, pegasus, and ursa major

they don’t have any of those

they have the southern cross, musca, and pavo

all these stars that we take for granted

just aren’t there

one of the longest flights in the world

is from melbourne to la

and i think it would be worth it

if only for one night

just to see their constellations

i want to see stars my brain can’t imagine

galaxies only half the world knows about

i want to see new constellations and hear

the stories they’ve been telling all these years

i want to try to take a picture of the sky

knowing it’ll never do it justice

because ever since i learned

that the southern hemisphere has other stars

i haven’t been able to think of anything else

how unfair is it that we can’t see half of space

we only see half of the beauty of the universe

imagine if we only saw half of everything

half of a rose, of a loved one’s face

half of the map leading you home

half of the note scribbled down

in messy handwriting professing

a kindergarten love

the world would be lesser for it

i want to experience everything 

i don’t want to turn back down a road

after completing half the journey,

never getting to the destination

i want to experience the world to its fullest

i want to see the southern skies