#startrippish

The two boys lean out on the railing   of the front porch, looking up. Behind them they can hear their mother   in one room watching “Name That Tune,”   their father in another watching   a Walter Cronkite Special, the TVs   turned up high and higher till they   each can’t hear the other’s show.   The older boy is saying that no matter   how many stars you counted there were   always more stars beyond them   and beyond the stars black space   going on forever in all directions,   so that even if you flew up millions and millions of years   you’d be no closer to the end   of it than they were now here on the porch on Tuesday night   in the middle of summer.