We Are Stardust

~For My Daughter (My Little Nebula, My Star in the Making)

“We are a way for the cosmos to know itself. We are star stuff harvesting starlight.” Carl Sagan

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On a cold January day fourteen years ago-
The mercury showed it was 60 below-
I gave birth to a baby girl
Who became my entire world.

Ten fingers and ten toes
And a cute little nose,
She lit up my life
My tiny starlight.

I watched her grow
The seed that I’d sown
Every milestone she made
Every smile she gave.

We sang songs about stars
And watched purple dinosaurs (rawr!)
We made forts in the leaves
Listened as breeze tickled trees.

At two, for something to do
Tired of rhymes about shoes and moos,
She sat on my lap
While I coloured a cat.

In yellow, she drew
And then chose a blue
Her chubby fist scribbled
And the table top wiggled.

I asked “What is that you drew?”
She looked at me seriously
And, speaking reverently,
She said, “Shtars and Moooon.”

At four, she understood a lot
But do imagine this mother’s shock
When my moonbeam told us
That she was made of stardust.

At five, she liked to sing
Songs about Saturn’s icy rings
Singing “Jupiter is the most wide”
And “Uranus spins on it’s side,” *giggles*

At six, she still sang songs-
Sometimes all day long!
About boys who go to Jupiter
Where they get more stupider!

My little starbright grew
And at seven she just knew
What she wanted to be:
An astronomer/farmer! Said she.

Now my girl is fourteen
How I miss my ‘tween!
Enchanted by the stars no longer
Gravity’s pull to boys is stronger.

Friends, Texting, Facebook,
Clothes, Skype and Makeup
Are her Universe these days.
No more time just to star gaze.

Still, there’s a twinkle in her eye
Every time she says goodbye
I know that she will return to me
We are stardust, forever be.