Takoma, Washington
Autumnal Equinox, 2009
I’ve been told that Pegasus
is a winged horse who
flies across the eastern sky
much the same as time
has dragged its weight between us.
I have also been told
that the babbling of dreams
is what other people say about the stars.
And if you name even one,
then all the rest will bitch and clamor
till you’re up at 4 a.m.
wondering after those that got away.
I haven’t heard your voice
since before I became a father.
And now
my grandkids want to hear about
my great deeds and close shaves,
the dazzling beauties I have known.
So, I tell them,
“There! That one dancing through the darkness.
That one bringing on the night.
She is the cadence,
breath,
the sound of first love.”
