Nightfall by Neil Gaiman

Half-rememberred lines of Shakespeare
change of times and states and cristal tresses--
And Pepys, going out with his wife to see the comet,
and afterward the plague,
and then the fire.


I always wondered how they noticed comets,
after all, the sky is filled with stars
and planets, and I ve never quite been able
to tell the two apart, see which was which.
And why did comets scare them so?


Stars fall, which is much worse,
But that does not make us fear that war will come,
and fires and plagues will come,
established things be overturned and new things come
--and new things are never comfortable things


So I walk down to the woods and stare up
at night. So many stars
But only one comet, obvious, and perfect and precise
its tail a ghost and white against the night,
On seeing it, I understand at last

And shiver,

for the change that's always coming