in the empty sky above
of an obscenely warm
winter night’s
familiar dark
i see stars count themselves
as they flicker to life one-by-one
while the incandescent tide
of insidious light pollution
–whose man-made glow
diminishes behind me–
reluctantly withdraws me
from its hollow embrace
as i pedal moonlessly east
to the outskirts
where ‘home’ awaits
after a long hard day’s
meaningful labor