around the turn of the year
  Orion looks at me
   head on
on my little loggia

the brilliance of the sky
in a clear winter night
is awesome
and even if I did not
   know the names of the stars
   that give Orion shape
Rigel, Betelgeuse

I would start wondering
about design and meaning
and how I figure in it
    if at all

   whether my astronomer friends
   have terms and explanations
   does not really matter

   it is I
   who has to come to terms
   with what I see    

with the endlessness
   of the universe
the brilliance of its appearance
and the feeling that
   in all of this
my own insignificance
might be
just that