It’s Always Forward

We tell the kids we can’t eat
a world without constellations. 

We tell the kids we can’t eat pets,
or tales we’re told by old men.
or taleThey’re just animals.
or taleJust stories. Just men. 

Because, whatever
the opposite of indifference is,
whatever the opposite of intolerance is,
whatever the opposite of extinction is,
it is forward. It’s always forward.
It can only be forward.
or taleThis is how our universe was born.
or taleThis is how our universe will be born again,
first spark, then bang,
and later, if the kids read the stars
and answer all the questions,
and learn how lines begin, 
we can go for ice cream.

And when they leave,
because they can,
there will be nights when they’ll lie
awake to read signs the stars give.
And every night they can’t see above them,
will be more lonesome
than the night before,
and they’ll break in the dark
and they’ll break in the light,
and they’ll call it love,
and they’ll call it instinct,
but none of it will matter
if they can’t feel it. 

And when the kids come back
or tale(because they always come back)
they will want us to say that
they are our constellations,
ripe and rotten,
drawn without boundaries
for no reason, no partial fact,
by no accident either,
and we’ll hold back
what we think they shouldn’t hear –
or talethe way the sky hides
or talethe secrets of parents,
or talethe way fathers hold their children
or talein their throats when no one is looking,
or talethe way towns become cities at night,
or talethe way mountains are built in the rain,
or talethe way two hands lock together
or taleunderwater and fuse, the way
or talethe sheet falls across the leg,
or talethe way we reach into darkness
or talefor the world around us,
or talesilent to voices that aren’t as strong.

And how easy it can be to forget,
even in our finest moments,
how much the kids will miss in this life
when we’re all covering our mouths,
how we think we know stars
when we see them,
how we stand facing the darkness
with our backs to the life-music
that only a fire can crank against a cold night,
how we breathe from it.