Two hours past sunset
Ditch Plains
Montauk
Walking from a friend’s house
Black out
Power down
Lights out
All lights out
No man light at all___
The above stars
Light the path through the Shagmoor
Cold 30 degrees cold
No wind
Through the trees
To the south
Below the bluff
Waves crashing on the beach___
No lights on the bluffs
Overhead
The Orion Nebula
1344 light years distance
From Earth___
Tonight
Boots crunch on the dark path
Eyes adjust to starlight
Deers sneak through the undergrowth
Silent
Orion rising over the eastern horizon
Once I knew the names of the stars
I’ve been lost in too many cities
Too many bright lights
Too many years of bright lights
I have lost my way
Through the stars I am not a spaceman
But I once came close___
Summer 1962
A suburb
South of Boston
I a ten year-old boy
Leave our split-level ranchhouse
Past midnight
My family deep asleep
Every house dark
Dead quiet
Out onto the back lawn
I lay on cut grass
Eyes straight up
Into the deep night sky
Beyond the bats
I
Hunting not for Soviet satellites
But a UFO
Waiting for the Aliens
To abduct me
I was ready
Willing
Able
To go to the stars
With strangers from Space
Leave behind this shitty suburb
Forever
To wander the galaxy
With Aliens
As an Alien to all of them__
They never came for me
And I cursed the stars
And the suburbs
And ET
Why didnt you take me?
I wanted to leave home____
To go to Orion
With Betelguese and Rigel
The Brightest stars
Amongst
Thousands of other stars
Ah, the Cosmos___
Tonight in Montauk like then
I am alone
No UFOs
Only jets bound to JFK
West of Montauk
No extraterrestrials in the sky
Only millions of stars in a blackout
My boots crunch on the dirt
Waves crash on the beach
And___
Orion rules the stars
Partnered with Gemini and Taurus
In the winter sky
I’m happy to be here
Ditch Plains
On a path lit by starlight
My fingers getting cold
Me stuck on Earth
The blue bright orb
In the quiet of Space
And south of me
The waves crashing on the beach___