Looking for Ison

Five billion years of waiting,
until this mountainous ball of ice and dust
came hurtling in from Oort’s mysterious
planetesimals at the solar system’s edge.
‘Sungrazer’ it was called.

Stargazers watched, breathheld,
as it swung around the sun,
- might the corona’s heat ignite
its gaseous core to dazzle all below? -

waited for its fiery tail,
for streams of blazing gas and dust
to light the sky…

and then declared it dead,
fizzled out, fragmented.

But wait. There is still light. Look up.

Ison may yet throw its arc across the sky,
illuminate December.


Most words culled from various BBC News websites.
Stand-in comet in the firmament courtesy of Oxford’s Westgate shopping centre.