Jupiter

For years eleven through the soft foam I drift

Silent, wordless, like a marooned soul lone

On the path where the Sun can scorch me not,

I move along the ring of rock and stone

Weaving a necklace for the Bright One amidst

With all my younger siblings I roam

Where began I? When will I stop?

It matters not, for the path is my home.

I know not rest, I shall forever so fly

I was born in motion and so shall I die.

Gloomy clouds in my dreary mind all gather

While my insides grunt and roar and rumble

With one eye I glare at my companions eight

My heart’s fire can make the air, too, crumble

I’d heat and boil and cook and heat

But can only last, if not grow, my hunger

I then fill up on all my sounds of rage

A hot stew of gas, garnished by thunder.

A giant, swirling ball of creamy clouds

Like mist they fade; then rise anew

Racing across that colossal temple of mine

Paint masterpieces with shades of the dull hue

How deeply I wish for the beauty of rings

Or for the mundane strokes of breathtaking blue

How deeply I envy my younger brothers three

They grew handsome; while I just grew.

In the panoply of giants, dwarves and midgets

I stand eldest due to my age - and size

And though my brothers follow their own paths

My many sons all deem me great and wise

When the shadows engulf their tiny brows

Mighty as a god on their horizons I rise

Only to discover, from the way they beam

That I never really did leave their skies.

A silent watcher in the endless space

The only sphere with a large, lidless eye

Behind which lies my soul, lost deep inside

With colours of the day in the land of night

The child of storms and smoke and steam

And a prominent lord of the starry sky

I know not rest; I shall forever so fly

I was born in motion and so shall I die.

Jupiter in the sky of Pandora - a fictional image from the movie Avatar