Stargazer...

Under the starry skies he sat, waiting for the dawn,
All alone, he kept his watch, as the nights wore on.

Sharp and cold, a steady breeze, soon began to blow,
Still at ease, he stared above, watching the stars aglow

He seemed not, to take much stock, of the cold or frost
His gaze always looked to be, in the distant heavens lost.

What he sought, so far away, he himself had no clue
Yet each night, his eyes roved, the dazzling midnight blue.

As winter came and cold arose, and leaves began to fall
His nightly routine, a habit firm, changed hardly at all.

Undoubtedly, it was beautiful, the glittering spread of stars
The planets too with their bluish glow… save the red of mars

But what was it that kept him so, deeply in their thrall
For him to give all else up, and make his existence sprawl

Because one morning, we found him there, atop his small hill
His body rigid, and his limbs cold, winter had claimed its kill.

What was it that had driven him thus, to his own demise?
What’d he hoped, to see up there, with his ever open eyes?

For he had been staring, even in death, at his beloved sky
And we wonder now, hopelessly, the unanswerable “why”

Was this his passion, to stare at stars, every night of his life?
Or was this the vent, of a tired man, sick of internal strife.

Who can tell, what he had felt, that had made him stare above
We ourselves, had never asked, why he eyed the skies with love

Those stars he prized, offer no clue, as to what he had in mind
Far apart, from each other and us, their distant light stays blind.

It appears as if, they bear no thought, of one who adored them so
Unaware of him, they meander on, making the night sky glow

Unfair it seems, their lack of thanks, for whole life’s quiet task
But we’re ones to talk, his fellow men, who never once felt to ask

We too seem, to be at a loss, when knowing our own peers
Even one we mark every day, and have seen for so many years

We are as distant as those stars we see, drifting further apart
I wonder if this, might perhaps be, what he had taken to heart

I’ll never learn, never be told, what it was all about
Why he died and how he lived, a life free from doubt

You can’t say now, what you’d sought, while still upon this land
But my need to know, leaves me no choice, so on your hill I stand.