衣里

   Looking up at the stars, I know quite well

   That, for all they care, I can go to hell,

   But on earth indifference is the least

   We have to dread from man or beast.

   How should we like it were stars to burn

  With a passion for us we could not return?

   If equal affection cannot be,

   Let the more loving one be me.

  Admirer as I think I am

  Of stars that do not give a damn,

  I cannot, now I see them, say

  I missed one terribly all day.

  Were all stars to disappear or die,

  I should learn to look at an empty sky

  And feel its total dark sublime,

  Though this might take me a little time.

                                                                       ——Wystan Hugh Auden