He reached for the stars
        and found the galaxy
        of his mother's milk,
        waited for the sucking fire
        to turn into a hunger
        he could chart
        among her cries.

        He asked for the heavens
        and met the limestone walls
        instead, glowed in the canyons
        like a lost comet rearranging
        the story of the planet.

        He reached for the stars
        and raged at the darkness
        outshining the light,
        dismissed the abandoned
        continent of his birth

        as the landscape of his
        father's enormous forehead,
        the wrinkled skin sweating
        as the old man reached
        down and took his wife again.

Copyright © Ray Gonzalez, 2002.  All Rights Reserved.