The stars were dancing on the waters
as I looked out from Stella Maris chapel.
At first I caught them at a glance
and then again to understand my eyes.
How long were they there gleaming
and beckoning me before my dim
gaze fell at last upon them?
I walked outside to draw nearer to them
and their brilliance. How many days
had they been there, and I ignorant
of their sparkle, keeping to my own
weak lights, casting around for rock
and tinder to spark my own thin flame?
I fear there are other men and women
like me, lost in dramas of our own
design, hunched over our plans:
blue prints, battle maps, finance ledgers,
dusty books. How much we miss
bent over our bitter pursuits.
Featured image, "Concentric Bearings A," by Vija Celmins, Tate Modern.
Thomas E. Strunk grew up in Minisink Hills, Pennsylvania on the Delaware River. His work explores nature and working class life and strives to express the longing for spiritual, emotional, and political liberation. His literary work has appeared or is forthcoming in Pinyon, DASH, Anthology of Appalachian Writers, Northern Appalachia Review and East Fork Journal. He is the author of History after Liberty and The Fall of the Roman Republic: Lessons for the American People. Thomas blogs at LiberationNow.org. He lives in Northside, Cincinnati with his wife and twin daughters.
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