Expanding Horizons

I remember
           as a child
standing on a pebble shore
watching ships
                      at sea
sailing
uncaring
over
     the edge
             of the world.

Looking up
years later
I saw
      the moon
sphere of old age
visitor
        in ancient days
                        and now
instrument of early myth

together with
              the sun
mother
       of life
father of destruction
whose bloated death
                     one day
will burn this precious Earth away.

Climbing out,
       we pass the planets;
nine
       or more
from ancient tales
              to nearly new
from Mercury to Pluto.