dark of night
the ‘great white way’
was once the Milky Way
pondered by shepherds
their musings giving connection
to vastness above and beyond self
millennia before angels brought
‘tidings of great joy’
‘dark of night’
now conquered by fear-induced
electric lanterns that blind us
to that experience of belonging
to our universe and hasten
our separation from it
in our small fears
we conquer ourselves
