Lizz Murphy Poem # 373 Starless

STARLESS

We believed in heaven occasionally spoke more poetically of the heavens often raised our eyebrows said heavens above! But that heaven those heavens were not connected to the sky The sky was just the sky Separate We didn’t look at the stars In winter we were inside because of the cold or shrugged into our ourselves and itchy scarves beholding our frozen breath thinking about our frozen feet In summer the night didn’t fall until midnight We were starless

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In this hemisphere

city lights blur the skies

In the country

where the nights are black

and you can’t see the person

you are talking to

the stars are back to front

I try to read them

wish I had a sky size mirror

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Mythology has the sky full of creatures and the The Milky Way is a woman spilling her milk It sounds so nurturing Women can’t help themselves Though in ancient Ireland it’s The Way of the White Cow which still sounds milky and may be how come the cow jumped over the moon