For ages church decree had made things run;
discarding set perspectives, as if they
were now, in fact, misleading, most would say
“was heresy,” for sure. Thus, anyone
who dared believe the Earth moved round the sun
might find himself locked up on that same day
and subsequently tortured. By the way,
recounting such misfortune couldn’t be fun,
at least for those who surely knew the rack
(condoned by educated clergy) was
enough to send a sane mind out to sea.
Like they, we, too, may doubt what we can’t see,
and swear our closest star is as it does:
once round our sphere, then, up again, it’s back.