Sky Fruit

Charlie Bowater “The Old Astronomer”

Who’s this girl who left the party to steal

the stars? She’s dressed for a ball, rebel strands

flying free from her careful bun, proof she

tried to play perfect, to keep up the dance.    

 

She escaped a plaster-smile gallery

with her stifled thoughts anchored on a sigh.            

Her left hand resting on her stomach, she

gracefully reaches her right towards the sky

 

and tries to pick a star from heaven’s boughs.

The blushing rush from spinning and bouncing                    

music has infused her mind with clouds.                    

She left the party, restlessly dreaming,

 

just to find that Golden Delicious peace

lying just beyond reach. She raises slight

fingers to the sky to grasp that small light,

that one forbidden taste in boundless black space.