Why we too must die

I.
There is a message that all the dead would send
though they have lost the sentiments
by which we understand our language

and so set only humming this May evening's air

(and it was by this
we knew ourselves
spun out like a filigree
upon the dark contours of the starlit sea)

harmonious with all the bodies of the stars

II.
nothing is new
except that which is not understood
except that which passes in and out of memory
as we ourselves pass in and out of sight in orbit with the universe
around a single point

which is perhaps invisible dark matter

as we pass in and out of sight

among swelling waves which have no names

III.
but when the moon at last struck out into the sky
cut pale and clear
like godly flesh over the water
like the flesh of the dead
its light seemed to us a shining from the murky deep