M. Stone is a bookworm, birdwatcher, and stargazer who writes poetry and fiction while living in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in SOFTBLOW, Calamus Journal, Amaryllis, and numerous other print and online journals.

Green Bank

Tucked within a Quiet Zone
spanning thousands of square miles,
the gargantuan telescope lifts
its shallow bowl to the sky
and gathers falling radio waves.

No internet or cell phones here,
no manmade blips interfering
with the structure’s work.
It is busy detecting pulsars
and neutron stars, magnetic
fields and superbubbles
while scanning the celestial sphere
for extraterrestrial chatter.

I gaze upon the behemoth, heedless
of the wind painting my fingernails
indigo and rattling my teeth. I hear
nothing but a roar as the telescope
strains its ears and listens.