Surrounded By Stars

and not at school.

Another poem. And it may have taken place on a stormy day in April…

Photo by Andy Holmes on Unsplash

early gray Monday morning:
English and Math every Monday
Home Ec every Monday
PE every Monday

But not today.
I get on the first express that rumbles in.

OOPS. Just past my stop, I mentally aim
my middle finger
in the direction of James Madison High School.

And ride to Coney Island, end of the line,
too early for roller coasters, Atlantic Ocean stormy in the distance.

I change trains there And head into the city.
Going to spend my school day as I see fit.

I didn’t finish the paper, don’t have the homework.
Didn’t get the form signed by my mom.

Fuck it all.
I hate school.

I like French class.
I like writing. And reading.
Science fiction, fantasy, romance, biography,

Space exploration, that’s okay… biology, that’s okay.
So I’m going to the Museum of Natural History,
if there’s time and I have enough money, the Planetarium.

The Museum itself is free,
I spend a lot of time in the dark,
mysterious Hall of Minerals & Gems,

There are places I can sit and look if it’s not too crowded.
All this stuff, from under the crust of the earth.
Igneous, Metamorphic, Sedimentary…

Sometimes there’s so much mica in concrete,
it sparkles…like the streets are paved with diamonds…

New York City.

I have enough money for the Planetarium!
First, I avoid weighing myself even where there is no gravity.

Then I see if there’s a line…
The Sky Show will start soon, so I race-walk to the auditorium
as early as I can, avoiding crowds of school kids.

My favorite place is the north eastern quadrant, where the stars are the most familiar
I sit in the back row, stretch my legs out.

I feel at home
Surrounded by stars.
Stars that move us and move with us…

Above, afloat with all the constellations…Orion the Hunter… Taurus the Bull
Polaris, the North Star, at the very tip of the Little Bear.

When show ends, the Zeiss projector rights itself, and the doors open.
The sun shines,
and I don’t have to show my face at my house until after 2 pm,
as if I’ve spent the whole day… at school,

and not from the depths of the earth to starriest reaches of space.

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