Summer

Frogs, stars 

And big and little brights in 

The Dippers and Orion's Belt 

I watch the sky as night vision

Closes into far focus, I

Imagine 

Ancient skies, constant gazings to

The cloak of night known 

Beyond knowing 

Fireflies 

Brighten, disappearing into the

Plush of dark marine,

Fireflies?

Stars?

Do such things matter?

They don’t change the heavens

They don’t change the earth  

My inside eyes watch my watching

As night sky nestles down

Beyond the pale, gone glow gold

Barely seen now, 

Pulse and shimmer imagined, 

To the west.

From somewhere 

In the dark, 

Gunnar arrives

He was on patrol, and

I whisper to him, 

Listen

Frogs

We sit in repose, 

Heat lightning like

Moths’ wings, but no weather 

This night, lighting up into a day

That will arrive as we sleep.

Flickering, the

Celestial shifts on paths

Through old and primal wild, 

Following more 

Heat lightning.

I tell Gunnar, shhh

It’s far away, 

We watch and listen for the thunder.