Nearing Dusk (2/20/96)

I.

indigo to black,
a proud electrum star and
moon-sliver shine through

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II.

i love the blues as they fade
but don't quite reach black
and the stars
OH, THE STARS!
the glorious shattering of stars on a clear night!
and the bright ones on a background of gun-metal blue as dusk falls.

and the moon when it's full,
especially the huge harvest moon,
shining not-quite-orange --
as if a jack-o-lantern's candle
had swallowed the whole pumpkin.

or almost, but not quite, new
shining with a sliver of bright
hope of its monthly crowning glory
or a last ember, dying away.
the dark orb always sitting,
waiting patiently for its turn to not-shine.

the ancients made the constellations,
the patterns in the sky,
naming them Orion or Taurus or Pleiades or Pegasus,
inventing stories to explain,
what they could not touch.


tom loos