Walk Thirteen - SWAYING STAR
From my apartment window,
and through the slice of power lines,
I can see the sky’s soft colors
slowly descending
into what will soon be velvet
Stepping out for the first time today,
into the late afternoon,
I’m greeted by a colorful sky
that breathes behind the picture
of tall buildings made of glass
I look at the city
from this distance,
knowing that its not as still
or nearly as calm as it looks
from here
The door closes behind me
as I head for the library
Outside of the gates of a shut, cluttered garden,
a big pit holds a heap
of limp prickly pear plants
They seem affected by the
sting of December’s breath
They’ve lost their posture
They’re limp, for now
and still very beautiful
Down the street,
guarded by a porch wrapped in fairy lights,
a small Christmas tree sways in the wind
Its bright star holds on,
while the tree stays grounded,
despite its upper half jolting
left to right
The swaying star kisses my heart
in tiny pinches
I reach its bright glare
with eyes of hope
and continue to move
in the direction it’s pointing
I turn my head back
to face forward
as an older man’s head
slips out of his home
This last piece of daylight
is elegant on his brown skin
He looks toward
the direction I’m walking in,
toward the sky,
and then my way
before retreating back into his place
Coming out of the library with three books,
the last piece of daylight is gone
It dropped beneath the concrete
and the velvet I was expecting
has wrapped itself around the sky
The sky is now a deep blue
with large inklings of black
stretched through it
A tall house adjacent to the library,
through the parking lot in front of it
is wrapped in long strings of light
from its top, to its bottom
One long blinking strip of green
and the other blue
Behind me, on the brown brick
of the building,
which appears to be a dark blue
at this hour,
sits a white painting
of a woman who’s eyes
kiss this dark part of day
The moon is just a little more full
than it was yesterday
I watch it pass
through a heap of mist
and into an empty space
where I can see its light shine bright,
before it moves behind more mist
More light
Four boxes flash pools of blue
to the left side of my face
The insides of the windows
of someone’s home
are wrapped in blue LED lights