Star Catcher
“You were right about the stars, each one is a setting sun.” —Jeff Tweedy
More than someone
who shoots haphazardly
in a general direction,
or reaches for them doubting,
rather she who modestly
catches and tip-toe
holds, gathers us all
together, allows us
each to glow a bit
brighter than if
we were alone.
Placed in a large
wicker basket, dancing
across a hidden lake
in the carpathian alps,
we shine through
the cracks.
Dust from each of us
on the fingertips of the one
placing eggs on a mirror,
ready to hatch a plan
and reflect on the pain
of grieving, shining
lives we’d thought
we’d have by now.
No longer gravely distanced
from each other starving
to connect, solitary
musical notes written
and placed in the open,
symphony swallowed whole by
imperfect eyes.
Rather laying together,
cradled into a melted
cuddle-puddle mass,
huddled finding rest at last
from guiding ships
across seas to ports
that would never
welcome us.
Now riding in a small
sturdy vessel together,
looking back where we all
came from, how far we’ve
fallen, in a good way,
allowing our collective
imagination to climb
the ropes lowered
from the sky.
Powered by the belief
of her inner child
safe to play and ask,
safe to dream and
remain, safe to stare up
and loose a few knots
in that mess of tangled
royal blue, safe to look
within and see she
had the power
all along.
She keeps the mystery
company in the drought
and allows wonder
to have the final say
in the rain.
Safe to rest with her stars,
all of us together as family,
gathered for a brand new
holiday, each of our celestial
skulls rung like a church bell,
in remembrance of what
we’d thought forgotten,
newly found.
Guiding the other
fireflies, choosing to share
visions, forever dwelling
in tending the lighthouse,
rather than rushing back out
into the calamity of night
and all it wishes
to take.
Rest, become stillness,
seeing every illuminated
headliner of the evening
cosmos, a legion of
ambassadors from
daybreak shimmer in a new
world, enamored, wide-
eyed and thunderstruck
for all they wish
to give.
