Aurora Borealis

Aurora Borealis

 

My daughter visited Norway in order to see the Northern Lights,

or Aurora Borealis, as I had learned to call them.

Oh, aurora. I know aurora.

In high school,

I learned of the mysterious colored lights that stream across the night skies at higher altitude.

Then, I used aurora often in my poetry for mysterious lights.

Aurora sounds a poetic word. I love that word.

Now, my daughter called it Northern Lights.

The northern lights display colors depending on

how deeply solar winds penetrate the atmosphere and

whether they collide with oxygen or nitrogen molecules.

Blue auroras are displayed 

when particles collide with nitrogen molecules low in the atmosphere.

Green auroras are when oxygen molecules are struck up to 350 miles

above the Earth’s surface.

Red auroras are when particles collide with oxygen molecules

more than 150 miles above Earth.

Science has made the mysterious light no longer mysterious,

but I still prefer the myth of 

the Labrador native people’s torches lighting a pathway to heaven for fallen warriors.

 

---Yearn Hong Choi