City lights,
You have drowned all my stars!
Can I hate you more for
Painting over my canvas?

The quiet time of the lovers,
Who used to prod for answers in the vast
Had a world to explore;
You have smeared it with your din.

Those who pretended to count –
The lullaby for the sleepless,
Are left with fingers now,
And they run out so quickly.

Those twinkling dreams above
Fail to see us now,
You have a cloud of lies
Hiding us from them.

Is it another one of your tricks
To keep us busy in our life,
So we don’t go meddling
As explorers searching for light?

Stars are the first things
We learn to love as a child;
We have drifted away
From someplace else.

And then there is the distance,
The tease of far away things,
That we come to love
When they are no longer near.

The solace that we are home
Before light, when we look up
To greet our shimmering friends
Of the night.

We forget where we come from,
Let us have a peek
When the sun goes down;
That’s the perfect time to look up.