In real life
we're the characters
in a story that
gradually transform
into microwaves
then spool out into
longer radio wave
lengths only to be
scanned and listened
for fruitlessly by remote
alien civilizations.
The echoes of our mutual
cries of exoneration
after having traveled
an otherwise unfathomable
distance finally wash over us
as so much static noise.
For that is what
they have become.
In there—
(points to
the stars)
—precisely
where we
are going.