PRIME

Waking at 3:47 in the morning, on rare occasions, has its rewards

looking out the window the brightest thing in the sky

is a perfect crescent moon hanging low over the neighbors’ rooftops

a moon we call a “cow jumped over the moon” moon.

They say this is the lonely hour where so many are facing their fears and doubts alone

But I am thinking of the James Webb Telescope making its way across the Universe

having gingerly extended its antenna and make two precise course corrections

primed to send images from back in time back to home

and that those awake at this hour

manning the progress of James Webb no doubt

have their secret unsaid fears and trust in science and equations

that everything will go according to plan

It’s said the higher in numbers you go, the more difficult it is to find a prime number

where the opposite might be said about so many stars in space

it should not be that difficult to find life, even intelligent life

on at least a few planets out there orbiting those trillions of stars

So we leave it to James Webb to send us back evidence to solve our many collective questions

about time, space, light, gravity, and the overall age of the Universe

I have questions of my own about time and the overall age of the Universe

But for the moment all I know for certain is I woke early this morning at 3:47

and that as a number, 347 just happens to be prime