I have seen the stars
They’re above my backyard every night in the sky
All I need to do is look up
Bright lights millions of miles away
They’re just stars
I have never seen...these
These are not stars
These are moments upon memories
Written in the night sky for everyone to see
But only for the special and strange few to understand

That little one to the left
Is something given
Something taken
It is in the front seat of a beat-up used Ford
The interior torn like wolves to a pair of Toms shoes
It is the closed eyes saying
“Trust me, I’ll never give you a reason not to”
That bright sun of someone else’s galaxy
Powerful enough to melt an Oreo milkshake
The way your laughs melt my troubles
Yes, it’s corny
Our star
Beats down on our moments
On your gleaming hazel eyes
Holding answers to the questions I’ll never regret
On my beaming smile
For pure happiness truly radiates
An infectious tune coming from one set of speakers
Causing everyone’s heads to bop in gridlocked traffic
It is something given
Something taken

That little one to the right
Directly in our line of vision
A bullseye we both were fortunate enough to notice, saying
“You hit the jackpot”
It shines down on an empty football field
Pitch black in the midnight glow
Directly in its line of vision is two hopeless romantics
Not two broken hearts
Each half in need of super glue and a symmetrical partner
But two full packs of Gummi Bears
Each doing just fine on the shelves
Till they realized that the company of the other is more than welcomed
And that one can never have too many Gummi Bears
Others will raise the question
Does one really need to have two packs?
It’d be a lot cooler if you did

The beaming star directly in the center
Would be the perfect one to now create some metaphor
About a weeping willow and a joshua tree
Or perhaps something cornier, if possible
But before I can, fortunately, there to save me
Are your lips on mine
Two packages spill into one
The lines of possible poetry waiting to be written go blank
All I want to do is reciprocate
The giggle
The smirk
The downright laugh-out-loud
Your reasons will remain a secret
Gone with the midwestern night wind over the turf
Mine will stay hidden with me
Because honestly, how outright dorky would it be
If I were to say
That you, the brightest star never given the chance to shine in the night sky,
Tasted exactly like Oreo milkshakes
And Gummi Bears

They are not just stars-----J.M.