Not Outshined

This poem was written in response to the Rattle® Poetry Ekphrastic Challenge for March 2026 and was ultimately not selected. You can find more information here.

https://rattle.com/page/ekphrastic/

Not Outshined

A million embers trapped in glass

Tiny stars all their own

Burn through countless windows

Like leaves on steel trees

Rising to a dusky sky

Not dark, for all the light

From cars and streets

And neon “Open” signs

Keep it from being truly dark

And the animals that dwell there

Have never seen the Milky Way

But passed the endless crawl

Of urban sprawl

A different sort of light can be found

One that dances across the Heavens

A hundred million stars sparkle

Against an expanse of velvet black sky

And the moon in her beauty

Blazing in the night

Illuminating all that stand below her

And she will not be outshined

Submitted under MRB