Shocks and Changes
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Summoned at three, I soothe my daughter's criesand, turning back toward bed, turn off her light.Out of the dark, a galaxy appears,pale stars scattered across the plaster skiesby some other child who thought this room at nightwould be his always. The moons, the meteors—all his hours spent peeling and arranging—for two years now have hung above my headentirely unnoticed. The old wives' talesays all the stars whose light we see are dead,but that's not true. We fail to see them changingas they change. And on this closer, human scaleand present tense, this room, this child I've kissed,this night will always and never quite exist. [End Page 607]
CHELSEA RATHBURN is the author of two poetry collections, The Shifting Line and A Raft of Grief. She lives in the mountains of north Georgia, where she directs the creative writing program at Young Harris College.
