The Gaze

I contemplate the absence of the stars…
I suppose that today they inhabit the sky
as they did yesterday, and as they will tomorrow.
They flicker in the vastness.
Behind the prism of my lenses
I imagine them magisterial.
The first drops amid the fog
are magic in the trembling night.
The mysterious drizzle
gives me back my calm.
it caresses my cheeks
it traces furrows in my palm.
My steps stitch echoes
along slippery sidewalks.
I move forward with the wind.
I smile and I sing.
They stop short…

to confirm that what they see
is real and true.