Aperture

.

As the probe doors slide open
upon another limited view
the brown timothy
and thinning deer grass
a partial vision
of paradise through
a narrow aperture
a half revealed place
less solid than shadowed
real than imagined
light than dark
the ancient dusky river
along whose banks the wood
doves have stopped singing
beyond lie rank
acres of faded goldenrod
in the flowerless forest

Liquid methane lakes on Titan: photo from Cassini probe by NASA/JPL/USGS, 2006 (NASA)
Northern Gannets (Morus bassanus), Bonaventure Island, near Perce, Gaspe Peninsula, Quebec: photo by Al Wilson, 2006