It is an honor and delight to have this poem published in If & When journal vol 2 .

When it is dark enough, you can see the stars. –Ralph Waldo Emerson

Star Gazing

At night we watched
that dash of fallen sequins
tumble from the sky
that blue black blanketing
the quilting gone awry,
a passage to heaven
brightly glimpsed,
a rip in the firm flesh
of forever.
Stars shot
sharp as the shrapnel
through the dome
the skin and bone
of my grandfather’s head.
Or the inside flash
of my son’s night brain.
The comfort of darkness
is a trillion eyes of grace
needled across the night
when all the little stars above
hold still, don’t fall.

RAS. 12-12-12