The sky is not a glass of anything;
it winks, it’s a parable,
the kind your mother told whenever
you’d been “wicked”—intense
but vague. The night sky swerves
to its seat, the show begins:

The Pleiades:
Seven zeros make zero—that’s what
we are. Seven opportunities
to drown in, seven ways out—
don’t look too hard, we’ll blur.
There’s more of us than meets
the eye, a spreading rash
on the shoulder of a stubborn man.
Taken apart, we’re nothing
but fire and air.

Cassiopeia:
Take it away! This is somebody else’s
nightmare. Can I be blamed
for wanting more? How else
stay young? My daughter, helpless,
outshines me in her willingness to serve.
Let her embrace her strong young man
and go. I’m chained to my chair.

Homepage image courtesy of Egres73, Wikimedia Commons