30 Day Picture Prompt Challenge

Night Lessons

Upended bowl.
Night lights
spill from
the hands of the gods.

Grandfather said stars
were the eyes of the gods.
I've always wondered,
if when the sky is covered
in a shroud of clouds
if the gods are blinded,
unable to see
me do something wrong.

Father points out
certain pricks in ebony canopy,
says men draw lines
with bits of chalk
from the beach
to create star illusions,
pictures in the night.
He must be right as I can see
a white cloud midst the stars
where chalk dust has blown
the drawing away.

Grandmother says I
must learn the stars,
memorize their homes
in the different seasons;
Ffor if I know where they should be,
I will always know where I am.

Mother tells me that
the world is rearranging,
that we must change, adapt
to keep up. She tells me
I will go far away someday.
Yet no matter how far I may walk,
or alone I might feel, what is real
is that all I need to do
is look up and know
we see the same sky.


I say that
the elders know more than I,
but I think the chalk
in the sky is what's left of
star-blown lines cast
from wanderers to the stars
and then home to ones left behind.






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