seven stars

my grandpa said he used to
grab hold the moon
when it was sleeping on its back
and pull himself up
reach out and grab the handle
tip that ladle and
drink from those seven stars

being a kid
I saw them differently
they were a mama bear
walking the night skies
with her cub
I’d watch them move
from the north into the northwest sky
and back again
while a motionless earth
secretly spun

and just as grandpa
I would leap from star to star
my child’s heart traveling
the unknown
into the endless night
of space and its tiny lights

somehow
somewhere I lost that child
and I lost my way
I could no longer
look out on that black sky
mistook awe for fear
couldn’t figure out where
I fit in with that dark eternity

I stopped looking
sought those temporary distractions
that pull at us all
behind which we hide
when the dark comes looking
but sometimes life gives back
some of what it takes
and on this clear night
without fear I look again in wonder
as that bear and her cub still walk the night
and know that they always will

as my gaze briefly drifts
a sleek metal cylinder
makes its hurried way across the moon
my eyes follow its path for a moment
and just as quickly it’s gone

for a moment . . . I wonder if you’re working that flight

but nothing holds me now
one day soon that sleeping moon
will set and no dawn will follow
life and love but short moments in time
those seven stars
about as close as I can get to forever