For Nick

by Tim Myers

Two days after Voyager's robot sensors
first gathered the music of Saturn (its toning cry,
where solar wind meets planetary bow shock,
fired back to us across a billion miles)

and we stood in the auditorium to hear
over the big speakers
its boom and crackle and bell-like moan—

two days after, I stood by your mother and heard
your birthday arrive, fetal monitor
transmitting to us from the depths of her body
that muffled whooshing of your tiny heart.

So tell me, Nick: Which was more mysterious,
and which came from farther away?

Copyright © 2004, Tim Myers

Tim Myers won a national poetry contest judged by John Updike, has published over 100 poems (Southern Humanities Review, MacGuffin, Green Fuse, ELF, national anthologies), and has a chapbook coming out from Pecan Grove Press. His children's book Basho and the Fox was read on NPR, made The New York Times bestseller list for children's books, and was honored by Smithsonian Magazine, The Children's Book Council, and Bank Street College. His children's book Tanuki's Gift was chosen as a "Best Book of the Year" by Bank Street College and Nick Jr. Magazine. His latest book Basho and the River Stones received an excellent review in The New York Times and is a Junior Library Guild selection. He teaches at Santa Clara University in the Bay Area.