Thinking of Abraham

Story has it that Abraham saw
A sky full of stars one night—

And what a night that must have been for an old man,
So full as it was of outrageous promise!
Vast progeny, as many as the uncountable stars!
Although, as we know, he had no child
At the time, yet he believed,
We must assume, and —the story doesn’t tell us,
Of course—but I imagine his old heart
Must have quickened at so grand a thought!
Can he see now, do you think, across the millennia,
Those stars, that progeny,
Light after light
Birthing, dividing, destroying,
Burning out—
Burning—
I don’t know whether such things as time travel are real—
We know so little of our own minds—
Whether, centuries from now, any of us could look back
From one point in our human stories to another,
See some thread, some pattern, 
In other words, see 
What has come of us.
But if we can, 
If Abraham can,
I wonder what that heart of his must feel
Now.