Night Skies

Thinking, on a day
more dreary than weeks
of uninterrupted rain,
how even lightning
must lose its touch
sudden as it arrived.

Of a short distance
runner with no place
to go.
Of the lonely
trapped in shadows
making the silence worse.
Of prizefighters who
realize too late
the ring was never square.

Of death getting
closer than it’s been
without any invitation
while laughing at
any it’s given.

And all the stars
that one by one
will eventually die
and us long before them
never quite so bright.