Poems

Stairs to the Stars (2022)

They said the stars would be easy

That if you just reached, you could grasp them

Clutch onto their sleek yellow bellies

And ascend their golden peaks

But no one told you about the stairs

The stairs that wind this way and that

Criss-crossing with the stars

And gliding underneath the moon

They're a maze, you know,

A maze no one can get through

Yet people try, clambering up each cobbled step

Their footsteps quaking the Earth below

And making it just a bit more necessary to

Reach the stars

I have a friend who can climb these stairs

Not like those people with their monstrous steps

That make it harder for everyone else

No, not like that at all

She climbs, her footsteps light

Stumbling at times, a grimace sometimes

Yet she never forgets the people below

Showering stardust so it all

Becomes brighter and less lonely

A signal that there is someone who cares

I tried climbing up those stairs once

My body aching, my breath shaking

And I tripped, about to tumble down

Back to the Earth

But there was my friend

Her hand reaching...grasping mine

It was then I realized

With her hand around mine

That those stars glistening around me didn't matter

For the real star was her,

Radiating, burning, blazing with life