Soot

My ancestor sat down at night,
lit up a candle,
and wrote
a letter
to his beloved one-
too late, for she'd been taken
to become a sprig
of your own family tree-
while the candle sent its soot
up to the starry skies...

Centuries later
you sit down today behind your telescope,
watching the infrared signature
of that football-shaped molecule,
so well known from lampblack,
now found in a star's atmosphere -
hundreds of light years away...
sending this message from the past.

When I light up again
this candle,
are you prepared
to play anew this cosmic game,
Marie?