under the western sky

on nights when life seems vast --

filled with space
and chilly

when a frisson of fright
hovers at the edge of
consciousness

like a wraith....

like a held breath....

when i am assailed
with wonder

but not the good kind --

on those nights

words whispered
long ago
well up

through depths of
memory:

walk to the window, daughter --
stand and gaze out
softly
into the
darkness....

you are all that you see
and all that you don't....

warmth suffuses
the silence:

stars and chemistry
are shared....

we are all
passengers
in this darkness

•

sometimes
on our rare
starry nights,

i pad quietly out

lift my face and heart up

to those silent
bluewhite
sparks

and feel the secret we share between us --

we burn
all alone

yet ensouled....

our very cells
atomic furnaces

knocking around in a vast microcosm....

i and the stars
differ not at all really --

sailing together
through infinity....

and that western star that always draws me --
lures my eyes upward and into
endless liquid
twilit depths....

into that elegant, embarrassing profusion
of starry riches....

we wink
and reassure each other....

•

here under the lights of the city

and the loft of the atmosphere

and the crazy zinging of microwaves
that net over my head --

i offer up my attention

to diamond barques in a velvet sea

silently signalling

here we all are --
together....

•

turning away,
a smile widens within....

a resilient glimmer
plays at the edge of my vision --

how those stars dance
down into the western sky!


_____________________
©2011
Beth Anne Boardman