2 AM

2 am and the dog wants out, a constant whining

I can’t ignore, and right now, I don’t like him very much,

forcing me from the warmth of my bed, the floor

cold under my bare feet. But I throw on a robe and slippers

and we go, me grumbling, him, excited, barking, spinning,

a short trek through a chilly room to the door and out into the dark.

He dashes off into the shadows, following a smell, investigating,

leaving me, alone, staring up into a late autumn sky, a brilliant

darkness - blue, black? - punctuated by the stars, constellated,

earth’s mythology arranged before me, a star map to eternity –

brightest Regulus, the lion’s heart, Leo, harbinger of spring;

and Procyon’s eastern anchor of winter’s triangle; Sirius’ Dog Star

glowing, watching, guarding, bright, and Cancer’s Crab, Hercules’

distraction; and Betelgeuse, Orion’s hand, his 3-starred belt and stance,

Orion beginning his winter journey across the sky, pausing here;

Puppis rising, the stern of the argonauts, Argo Navis, Jason’s ship,

searching still a Golden Fleece; and a heavenly host of faint stars

beyond, among, barely seen, or not seen at all,

visible only in their absence.

            And I wonder,

is this expanse why he pulled me out,

some canine sense of my needs and desires,

pulled me out into the night sky to see

my soul laid bare among the stars, splendent

in these dark skies of an autumn’s early morn,

2 am, to align myself to earth’s mythology,

a universe spread out before me,

weaving me into eternity.