"alnilam" poems
I let my dog out back and watch him
because it’s cold out and I’m
not wearing a shirt
my arms are crossed and I watch
as he disappears in the inky blackness
and I turn to the sky
Mintaka Alnilam Alnitak
eyes drawn to Sirius
and back
to Betelgeuse and Bellatrix
Rigel Saiph
The Pleiades, and
I like to pretend I can find
Procyon
My ******* and my hands press closer
to the glass, and it is freezing
yet my eyes are locked on the left of
Orion,
at a star I don’t know
nearly blinding with its luminosity
a planet, but one I do not know
and it thrills me
This is how planets are discovered
I think
anomalies in the sky that
make man wonder
it is bright and beautiful and my face is
against the window
my breath fogs the glass
yet still I see the nameless Star—
and I open the door, to bring myself
closer, to war the cold
in hopes that being near will
fill me with knowledge and that
elusory star will tell me its name
And my dog, invisible in the night,
jumps back from the door and looks
reproachfully at me
and I stare at that gorgeous sky
and my naked skin is already shivering
and my arms cross against my chest
as I turn and go back
inside,
staring at the Pleiades and Orion,
and that white-hot star
once more.
Dec 3, 2010
Dec 3, 2010 at 7:16 PM UTC
Cheerio, cheerio
Four AM they call to keep the awake awake
And lull the slumbering deeper adream
Clutching vapors of the musky night
Cool, humid, starry eve
Betelgeuse humming a tune
Rigel entranced by the melody
Alnitak, Alnilam, Mintaka belting along
While the nightbirds
While away the hours, embedded
Deep in the canopy of springtime maples
And chirp, and chirp, and chirp the expanse
Singsonging to insomniacs
******* of blue, red, orange, all grey
Parading the atomic clock onward
And every night they chirrup
Never before two o’clock- why at such a time
As the deadzone of slumbering night?
And there goes the first
Cheerio, cheerio
Good night, good morning nightbirds.
Feb 27, 2015
Feb 27, 2015 at 4:33 PM UTC
An open road, one lone walker
A black clear sky, Orion's Belt
Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka
Viewed in the early night sky
Constellations scattered
A full moon sits high
The eye is distracted by
The light
The road so bare
Not a soul to be seen
Guided by thoughts
Alone
Turning a corner onto
The narrow back track
Homeward bound, no end
To this, journey that started
With just one step
Into the abyss, a distant
Wanderer, who'd always
Be lost.
© Sia Jane
Nov 19, 2013
Nov 19, 2013 at 9:00 PM UTC
In her hair, she wears
The beauty of Polaris;
Luminous orbs adorn
Her celestial body.
A veil of nebulae on her face,
Fails to conceal her eyes;
Alive with catastrophic bursts;
Reminiscent of supernovae.
Alnilam, a glorious embellishment
Graces her neck;
Sun-like Centauri on her arm,
And Elysian complement
To her dress of quintessence and energy.
R. A. Tyndall
May 5, 2020
May 5, 2020 at 12:09 PM UTC