40,000 feet at night

Cloudy sky on moonlit night
Fields quilt the landscape
and fade into black canvas.
Lights needle forth
up through airy space, up

from bridges, harbors,
winding strips of highway
to form constellations
of seeming clarity. How simple it is

to recess the whole world,
submerge it like a filthy pan
in dishwater, to be surprised
by a kind of beauty

in distance – pins of light,
clouds of suds – as if
I could choose between
this way and the other.

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