In beautiful blackness
lingering at all edges of our spinning planet
humans hold devotions
under glittering canopy.

Stars blaze
like diamonds
like hidden treasures
we mine our whole life long.

I sketched them in school
five strokes
pointy arms jut out
drew them above Christmas manger

All over the top of an 8×11
big ones, little ones
all stars look related
round moon smiling too

And when at edge of rocky beach
tightrope-walker toes grip slippery rocks
I see five fingers clinging
to stone pockets—I ask

how did we come to name
five-thumbed sponges star-fish?
Scientists give a Latin explanation
Astronomers another history

This night under the stars—the keeper of my eyes
I begin to wonder if naming
may be the only way we fragile stargazers have
to make a miracle real.

Marianne Lyon has been a music teacher for 39 years. After teaching in Hong Kong she returned to the Napa Valley and has been published in various literary magazines and reviews such as Colere, Crone, Trajectory, Earth Daughters, Feile-Festa, and Whirlwind. She spends time each year teaching in Nicaragua. She is a member of the California Writers Club, and Healdsburg Literary Guild. She is an Adjunct Professor at Touro University Vallejo California