sudden cloud break

unmapped roads

Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden at night - Vancouver, B.C.

stars

upon leaving the Chinese garden 
where a hundred and more 
paper lanterns 
in trains of flickering light	
floated magically
across dark waters 
you stopped to look up 
                     to marvel 
marveling to count 
the stars—ten glimmering
through a sudden cloud-break 
an even greater delight 
to compound the pleasure 
of the garden

then half in jest you sought 
gallantry: a coat thrown 
across a shimmer of rainwater—
it wasn’t royal treatment 
you were hoping for
but rather adoration . . . 
passion . . . 
love . . .

it’s what you said 
and meant I suppose
having once followed
those same stars north
from Louisiana to Alaska
in your ‘59 Olds 
unmapped roads ahead
a child of six months
growing in the backseat