The Coordinates of Place and Time
Here comes so close to us
The end of the second millennium,
With the end of the twentieth century;
And we were already born,
Somewhere and sometime,
In this turbulent century -
We will be soon people of ancient time…
And we live here, north of the equator,
On the thirty-two degrees latitude
And on the thirty-five degrees longitude
East of Greenwich and the Mediterranean,
In the big continent named Asia,
That is located on our huge planet Earth,
Which is the third planet of our solar system,
In the very long galaxy of the Milky Way,
Which is only one of millions of galaxies
Existing in the endless cosmos
And are constantly running away,
One from the other with accelerating speed…
So we already have no choice
But, perhaps, be consoled by the fact
That even the just-born-baby will be like us:
A member of this passing old century.
The end of the second millennium,
With the end of the twentieth century;
And we were already born,
Somewhere and sometime,
In this turbulent century -
We will be soon people of ancient time…
And we live here, north of the equator,
On the thirty-two degrees latitude
And on the thirty-five degrees longitude
East of Greenwich and the Mediterranean,
In the big continent named Asia,
That is located on our huge planet Earth,
Which is the third planet of our solar system,
In the very long galaxy of the Milky Way,
Which is only one of millions of galaxies
Existing in the endless cosmos
And are constantly running away,
One from the other with accelerating speed…
So we already have no choice
But, perhaps, be consoled by the fact
That even the just-born-baby will be like us:
A member of this passing old century.
Written by Moshe D. Shafrir-Stillman