VESPERS

sit
and watch
as gods
dim
the lights
and my bright
star
spills fire
across their dusky
canvas

a lustrous
swirl,
a vaporous
panorama
smeared
above
the pines,
its fiery
clouds
the glowing
harbinger
of sacred
night

then crickets
and tree frogs
conjure
the moon
and stars are
pinholes
in a dark
cathedral sky,
the lights
of heaven
shining
through