Geminid

—Hanalei, Kauai

they say you will rain down tonight

just above Orion’s reach

the geometry of Gemini open to hold

fallen sky light

so I walk to a dip in the road

where tropical forest hides house lights

and golf course opens sky

head up-tilted, eyes shielded

from carfuls of teenagers calling

to each other in the dark, singing

the long arc of their light-years lives

cruising with the everlasting

stars and brief spirals of meteors

flash

one burns out just below Gemini

momentary strand of dying light

followed by a clack not from above

but from something here on earth

living in dark as in light

the albatross I saw in daylight

three I took for teenagers

play-acting courtship

having alighted on land

after three years of open seas

now they clack hard beaks

follow their albatross hearts in the dark

flash

thin light streak on the edge of vision

o how this night brims with light.