(South shore Kauai, looking due south)

I rise a bit before 4 a.m. on an errand
of the night, surf sounds pulling me
to the lanai to see what I might see,

and there, while we’ve been sleeping,
the all-night star show spreads out above
like so many grains of bright sand

over perpetual waves that have lulled us
to sleep. The foreverness of it all strikes
me again, as it does when I think

to put myself amid the vastness and simply
take it in—not get out the star map
to remind myself of the names

of bright celestial objects I once knew,
resist the urge to identify, quantify,
instead to do what humans

have done since the beginning:
stand under that dome of forever,
inhaling our part

in eternity, too, we tiny bits
of starstuff who voyaged over
the sea to these islands,

who came from the sea
to walk upright in this
tender world, gently,

stopping now and then
to stand humbly before
its majesty

carrying nothing but
our awe.

•••

(for Sue Lester, the original BFF, on her birthday)