Ink Tea Stone Leaf

Observe your breath in the chill of night
and hold the body that keeps you warm—
to feel the stars of the northern sky
arrest your eyes, to behold their reds
and blues, to shiver, is such a lucky thing!

With every call of the crickets, music—
rivers, ribbits, a rhapsody
of forest played to the fallen trees
and dedicated to darkened moon.

The lantern's flicker, the nip of the wind
on naked skin, and the ember within
is stoked to a sudden and perilous blaze.

The constellations witness you:
Orion, the great and the little bear,
et cetera.