My Learned Friend

One night as I lay dreaming I did see above me the whole contents of the universe shining brightly. Every star, every planet, every galaxy revealed itself to my eyes in clear and sparkling detail. Distant galaxies, usually faint and frail and small, now did appear large and luminous as the fullest moon. The whole of the night sky was aflame and glittering.

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As my sleeping eyes observed this spectacle with awe, the heavenly bodies began to swing and sway, interweaving in an intricate dance. When I screwed up my focus to perceive the patterns of their movement I saw the shapes I had first taken to be stars and galaxies in fact more closely did resemble living cells, bacteria, wriggling and shimmering across the sky, making war with each other, dying at the edge of a indefinite blackness.

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And I did desire to seek my learned friend who reads the heavens and understands their movements and their meanings. And I did desire to ask of him what laws govern the stars, making them appear to be as life devouring itself. But he was nowhere to be found.