"In the Next Galaxy" by Ruth Stone

At the end of every year The New York Times Magazine comes out with an issue called "The Lives They Lived". It's sort of an anthology of remembrances of notables -- some famous some not so famous -- who've died in the past year. One of the lives remembered in the 2011 edition is that of poet Ruth Stone (1915 - 2011). Along with an eloquent tribute by U.S. poet laureate Philip Levine is reprinted this deceptively simple little gem.

Things will be different.

No one will lose their sight,

their hearing, their gallbladder.

It will be all Catskills with brand

new wrap-around verandas.

The idea of Hitler will not

have vibrated yet.

While back here,

they are still cleaning out

pockets of wrinkled

Nazis hiding in Argentina.

But in the next galaxy,

certain planets will have true

blue skies and drinking water.

Amen to that.