What a shock it was
at ten or twelve
to learn that like us
even the stars must die
the stars eternal
yes but only in the sense
our bronze age ancestors
allowed the word
since they well knew
that no created thing
could last forever
but we inherited aeternitas
rank hubris of the Romans
whose empire was meant
to outlast time
yet far older than Rome
the word's deep root
meant vital force
the energies that play out
in the earth's great age
and in the age of stars
without whose death
the life we know on earth
would not exist
since that same vital force
with which stars burn
magnified a thousand fold
within the furnace
of a supernova
makes through its alchemy
the elements
needed for life to form
to borrow from the bard
stars are in truth
the stuff that we are made of