It is dark. Night. The girl opens the window,
looks up to where she knows Orion's belt resides behind the clouds.
She thinks now she understands time.
She thinks she sees time growing out from her heart
in an illuminated spiral, flashing green,
and not ever the other way around.
She imagines the stars looking back, benevolent and still sincere, still there, in the night sky.
Still there now.
And now.
And always.