A Clear December Sky, Dark, Cold, and Starlit

So tired of the ice and snow,

freezing rain, and dreary drizzle,

overcast skies and clouds blotting out the sun

and the clear night sky, December sky,

cabin-fever settling in these early winter days;

but tonight, stepping out onto a new fallen snow,

the sky is clear and dark, cold, and star-lit,

constellated, Orion where he should be,

where he always is here in the winter sky above my house,

Babylon’s “Heavenly Shepherd,” the “True Shepherd,”

shepherding me here, small in the universe I share with him,

the great hunter, his belt, three stars - Alnitak, Alnilam,

and Mintaka - straight and bright against the dark heavens,

reminding me, my coat pulled tight about me, hands

deep into my pockets for warmth, a scarf about my neck,

reminding me of things eternal, begun long before our time,

lasting well beyond us, despite us, powerless here,

an eternity we can only glimpse, touch briefly, temporal,

and in touching, transitory though we be,

we are alive, a small contribution touching, too, eternity.