I can’t see the stars… and that hurts more than anything else.   Here it is midnight, and I can’t tell whether the sun just set or it’s about to rise, even though I am hours away from either one… there is a constant haze on all horizons.  Everywhere, there is a dim light… the city’s night light.

            I can’t sleept, and I think it’s because the night lite is keeping me from seeing the stars.  I don’t think it’s the heat… I think its because the Big Dipper has poured itself right out of the sky.

            So I close my eyes, and try to remember what the night sky is supposed to look like… and the world fades away.

            And I can see it all… every little twinkle of starlight.  Here I am standing in that field again, outside of the only house that has ever felt like home to me, looking up at the diamond glitter of the stars.   I am relaxed, so happy I could yell for joy.   The picture is so perfect… I can even smell the grass that I am standing on, I must really be there.

            So I open my eyes, an realize that I’m still stuck where the stars have all fallen.  A tear slips from my eye… and catches the light from a streetlight… flashing like a falling star…

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