GOONHILLY

For nearly fifty years
these giant ears
have listened
here on Goonhilly Downs.
Catching heavenly hearsay,
and earthbound conversations.
Downloading distant data
to digest, disperse
into familiar fragments.
Sending signals spacewards
to reflect momentous matters.

Time and technology
take their toll:
The broadcast now is ended,
and the station closed.
The listening posts have moved elsewhere.

In years to come we will look
and wonder, gaze and wander,
amazed at man’s invention,
admiring but not gauging
his achievement and intention.

And so these sixty geometric dishes
become a graveyard of spaced satellites.
Listed, the structures now stand still,
and will tomorrow.
No longer listening.

Here on Goonhilly Downs,
as everywhere, we listen still
but do not hear.
We never have, nor ever will.