The Sun

Daisies strain to catch her light,
Instinctive reverence.
Saffron bauble in our skies,
Life-giving elegance.

Primary source of energy
For all upon the Earth.
Ethereal wisteria,
Which heralds spring’s rebirth.

Bathed within the filmy veil
Of blowing solar wind.
Protective bubble in the void,
The planets held within.

Yet solar winds, they wax and wane,
Her photons fairy dust.
Reversal of magnetic fields,
Respond, our climate must.

A yellow dwarf of middle age
With fusion at her core.
A turbulent and active star,
We cannot hear her roar.

Auroras at our planet’s poles
Where lively atoms dance
Are waterfalls of coloured light
That spellbind and entrance.

Eventually, she’ll bloat and bulge,
Red giant will she be.
Soft clouds of gas will frame her face,
All misty and carefree.

And then she’ll shrink and fade away,
Her fiery temper gone.
A white dwarf of quiet grace,
With beams of pale chiffon.

The scholars say she’ll be at peace
When all her fuel is used.
A memory of the Milky Way,
A dream, a gem, a muse.

By Sophie Chenoweth (2017)

Illustration by Natalie Betts (2017)