How did you come to know the sky?
By the slow, wondering gaze of a child composing cloud pictures?
Or did you seek comfort there when lost or alone,
When the blue seemed dense enough to soak up doubt?
Is it a bottomless darkness, the mysterious source of our dusty past,
Or an insubstantial mantle that sustains another breath?
Perhaps you remember the highlights of the first time
You saw a sunrise so thrilling you thought your heart would stop.
Or maybe Disney did it better?
In urban life, we notice the sky
Only if it gathers menacing clouds to soak or rattle us,
Or sometimes as a stained, fragile membrane
Stretched taut between the buildings.
But there it is,
Every day and every night,
Our kin, our constancy, our sounding mark.

This work was supported by a Kansas City Avenue of the Arts award.