— after Frank O’Hara
And tonight the aurora lit up my phone camera

from a suburban back porch

green into pink into blue and a sprinkling of stars

bright just beyond my fingertips. Falling asleep beside you is

probably not more fun than going together to hear an orchestra

            play along to The Empire Strikes Back

probably not more fun than two nights of geomagnetic storms

            animals across the world raising their heads in rapture

but the original Star Wars movies are very good

                                  — we agree on this —

and rare cosmic beauties are lifetime events

            and even then!

This, too, a small miracle

like an orange cat curled in my lap

            or the fact of our lives weaving together

after so long afraid of fire & afraid of drowning

all the songs refracturing in new light, I stop the world

and melt with you!  

All the possibility of the universe condensed into

having a pink Moscato with you as autumn slips

into winter & I sink into feeling.