Theatre of Stars

Sultry summer evening, 

Voices from a nearby garden 

The clink of glasses 

Muted laughter

Doves co-cooing in the branches of a tree

Squadrons of swifts performing aerial acrobatics, 

Screeching their commands as they change formation. 

A single engine plane passes

Above all this

My heart beats its steady rhythm 

ba-boom, ba-oom, ba-boom 

The clock ticks the seconds by

tick-tok, tick-tok, tick-tok

Pulses of energy from across the void of space

Until the night is formed

I am surprised to see stars

(after several cloudy days)

And they effortlessly draw me out 

into the cool stillness of the night

In search of total darkness

I find myself in the graveyard,

(having lifted the latch of the lychgate, quietly)

The only place the glare of streetlights does not intrude

The dead having no need of light

I sense no ghosts here, 

but nevertheless 

I feel a shiver down my spine

As I look up into the cosmos

And take my seat beneath the theatre of stars

20 July 19