From the brawling bars of Mars

to the dim cafes of Aldebaran,

the music of deep spacers

reaches to the unbounded sky.

Most often it is a raucous music

of passions intense and fleeting,

brutal and lacking in subtlety,

a release from light years passed.

Yet when the last call comes and

the lights flicker, and cafes

and dim bars are shutting down,

the music all at once changes

to a vast and haunting refrain

that echoes the depths of space,

the solitude of ceaseless travel.

Stumbling out into the night,

singly, in pairs, and in groups,

strains of music trailing behind,

the spacers wander alien streets,

in search of temporary lodgings

beneath the static of the stars.