"My God, it's full of stars........"

painting by Rob Schouten

To Stars

With age,
I’ve learned to watch my feet.

I’ve become cautious of falls,
the true frailty of bones,
and the fragile choices
found at every crossroad.
Time makes us bend:

we learn the habit
of looking down.

I was falling
off the edge of the world,
in a nameless little desert town,
disappearing into a sweet black
halcyon midnight

amid smells of diesel,
black asphalt and chaparral,
after a summer rain.

Blessedly nowhere,
just between
"here" and "there"
a truck stop off I-40.

Then I saw you make your
gracious, puddled descent.

Luminous Orion

and faithful Sirius, the Dog Star.
Antares, the Scorpion’s tail,
the Pleiades, dancing
in Indra’s shining jewel net.

And the Big Dipper,

offering,
offering,
offering
forever

Lauren Raine

"When I'm writing I don't dream much;
it's like the dreaming gets used in the writing."
— Ursula K. Le Guin

(Quotes by Ursula K. Le Guin)