I used to gaze with wonder at the stars
with a fleeting hope that they gazed back.
Perhaps I was the topic of their dinner-table talk!

But now I gaze with wonder at myself
I certainly am not who I once was--
shocked, astonished at how quickly

I became someone else, or rather
how I became everyone else.
I used to gaze with wonder at the stars.

Pity the stars have long since burnt out.