the light of stars

“There is no blue without yellow and without orange.”

Vincent van Goh

When I first learned 

what a constellation was,

the world broke open 

before my seven-year-old 

eyes and revealed 

a deeper level of  

life I never 

could have 

before fathomed. 

I never once

imagined that a world

could exist within 

another, or 

that a yellow star

and a blue one

might be related by 

their surface temperature

and luminosity. 

Once I knew the names 

of Ursa Major and Orion

I felt closer to them, 

as though I could see 

a family tree connecting 

what was 

and is and 

will be: 

the light of stars

and all that

they contain.