Do you know the difference?

Do you want to sail the stars, or the universe?

I am told the difference is political
but don’t know which way round I’d be if
it was me. Perhaps I would know the meaning of serene.

It must be the brink, an existence like that,
the Earth hovering and the blackness
elsewhere. My own paranoia

would be tenfold: at every creak and whistle
the threat of nothingness and implosion
from the very idea of it. And free from gravity?

The pull of my body would not exist,
the tugging, the nagging—gone.
Only functions would be left. Basic need.

In light of all of this it would seem irrelevant,
perhaps, to choose between the stars
and the universe. Do you sail for the sights,

or for the inbetween? Choose your side,
they’d say. Astronaut,
or Cosmonaut?