Cold winter night sky, you draw me
Up into the crystal clarity that seems
So far from where I am on the inside.
Even when the city lights obscure the stars
With their occasional brilliant glee peeping through,
The blackness between the bare branches
Offers an internal security blanket.
I could stare… all night…
Letting all the knots in my mind unravel
Were it not for the knots in my muscles
Fighting the piercingly chill wind.
I look down shivering,
Pulling my coat and scarf around me tightly,
Still standing still…
My unfocused eyes keep staring mentally upwards
Until I shake myself out of reverie and walk on.
Ah, winter in all its nighttime glory!
I like the bare trees standing nakedly real
Against the shallow unreality of
Man’s pomp and circumstance.
Black sky, you pull me out of the urban crunch
Into the uncluttered infinity of natural creation,
Even if just for a few moments.
I can trudge on smiling again because we touched,
You and I, dark knight sky, and shared
A peace beyond comprehension.

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