For Gael

Never was a fire so beautiful as that night,
And the beach washed alive with sunset
—impossible hues of pink, purple, red
infusing us with summer’s final moments

We sat high up on the medicine rock
breathing in beauty, glowing,
seeing even the marks of the bear
her meandering path, so fresh in the sand.

And then the fire,
the heart of it reaching out to us, and to the north star,
to Taurus and the Pleiades
fearlessly seeking contact,

Starlight fed the fire, fed our eyes,
our hands,
our hearts.
Great Bear lit the Earth Bear’s tracks.

Never was a fire so beautiful as that night.
I knelt there, mesmerized by incandescence
and wondered what it takes
to travel to the stars
little knowing
you were already there

September 6, 2012

by Joanna Streetly