A Far View: Near Christmas

The milky way a thick slush, the braille

of pine needles already frosting

toward a paler morning.

Ice-crystal stars piercing

the old phrases new again -

midnight clear, wondering awe.

Your breath near-luminous

against sheer dark.

The stillness opens ... as though

some new sound traveling through space

is about to arrive.

Makes you wonder how the open secret of deep-

rinsed skies can remain unnoticed, night

after night after year;

how long the new star had really been there,

waiting for its light to reach the world.