Astral Planes and Bloody Knees

I looked up

head tilted back

the weight of summer 

beared down hard 

Warm concrete beneath my feet 

dissected by power lines

my backyard sky glowed blue and pink

the colors viewed

through my merlot haze 

the arrival of June

ushered in beasts

I bloodied both knees 

during Mercury Retrograde

the visit was a brief and painful one

June's departure left raw

tender grief

my papa left too

two days after the summer solstice    

the beasts remained,

The earth kept turning.

The skies look down 

governing us,

maybe they're judging us

laughing at our earthly misadventures

Looking up, it makes me wonder

and looking skyward makes me think of him 

his old man grin

remembering the way light would look on beige carpet floors

entering through the slats of blinds 

and doors 

of his house he no longer occupies 

and never will again 

My slice of sky, a reminder tonight

of the tails and trails of cosmic dust               

I saw while sitting outside 

during a meteor shower 

and called him on his last birthday

last winter.

Now July

I ask of you 

please be kinder 

be more gentle

my knees are healing

but look the way I imagine my heart does now, 

scabbed over 

and wont to crack at any time.