Perigee

And what have you seen

From your perch in the sky

As the seconds and hours

And eons slip by?

Do you weep at our wars?

Do you mourn when we go?

Do you listen to lovers’

Sweet midnights below?

Do you savor the waxing

Of children’s delight

As they scribble your likeness

On wafer-thin white?

Do you whisper to stars

All your secrets unknown?

Do you draw up the tides

So you won’t be alone?

When you dwindle and darken

And waver and wane

Are you jaded or weary

Or simply in pain?

When you once again swell

And in glory arise

Are the altars of dawn

Draped in welcoming sighs?

When you felt a small step

Scatter clay-blackened earth

Did you taste it on

Crater-kissed peaks?

If I lifted my face

At the crest of the hill

Would you lay tender

Hands on my cheeks?

If I lit a fresh candle

And offered its flame

Would your fingers then cradle

The spark of my name?

If I let your pale glow

Guide the path of my years

Would your presence eclipse

All my longings and fears?

If I lingered through dusk

Bearing witness to you

Would you sink from your throne

And see my secrets too?