Aurora

The Arctic sky explodes in a fever of phosphorescent bursts which launch
radiant streams of green light whirling against the black canvass of space.
Electric clouds dance across the horizon reaching for distant snowcapped
peaks bathed in an emerald glow. Traces of violet haze flash in momentary
spurts then quickly vanish into the void; as curtains of shimmering red
plasma illuminate the faces of the Earth with the mystic horror of Heaven's
blood.

The Goddess comes early tonight! Swooning in ecstasy, she releases her
molten joy across the breadth of the universe. Diana dims her light in
deference. Venus, her vanity wounded, hides in the shadow of eclipse.

The Poet and the Painter resign.

A priest in black reads the Book of Apocalypse in Latin.

On the vast tundra a shaman stands, his arms stretched out, gazing into the
fires in the sky. The magnetic hum vibrates through his marrow into the
Earth.

The quiet of the forest night is broken by the cackling of ravens in hidden
roosts. Wolves yelp with uncertainty. Satyrs and nymphs reappear, singing
and cavorting, intoxicated by the celestial orgy of light. Buddhist couples
copulate on snow beds seeking conception under cosmic rays. Abandoned
totems facing the ocean are reborn by the energy their Spirits absorb.

Children rise from sleep to stare out their windows in wonder.

On a hill the blindfolded scientist kneels before his electronic devices
pointed high to collect data which translate the colored lights into black and
white figures to be interpreted by computers at state funded universities
where students will learn the nature of matter.

Oh! To yearn for the ancient days of Simplicity
when Olympian Gods explained all!
For now Man is ruled by Reason And Knowledge
and no one mourns the crucifixion of Beauty!

Those who will not see, cannot see.
Those who know, do not know.

In the far North, a polar bear walking alone on thin sea ice pauses, as the
lights dim, to say a prayer to the Goddess of the New Dawn.