Knowing that Penn had dabbled, periodically,
in paints, noting the modest watercolor

Hundreds came to pay tribute and to pick over more
than 22,000 objects: sequined vests, fur coats, goblets,

gave way to works stripped of
anecdote, all light, hush

Radiographs showing fine details of vomer, dentition,
vertebral column, pectoral and pelvic girdles

No vertebrate diet of comparable silica
content has been described. Though well defended

Most of the mass of the universe
may be contained in dark matter.
No one knows what that may be.

The strength of its emission is consistent
with a pattern of violent collisions

To focus all four on the same subject,
to combine their light in phase

Night has just begun to have its say.

So why do we care when the door accordions open
To some total stranger’s paradise without us?