Last month my husband and I and three friends headed to Utah for a glorious nine-day vacation. We spent every day hiking, either in Zion National Park or Bryce Canyon National Park or on various other local trails. It was amazing and glorious and everyone should go there.
On our last night there we finally hit the outdoor hot tub. With temps soaring over 100 degrees F every day it didn’t cool down enough to get into the hot tub till very late. But our last night in Utah, close to 11pm, we finally shut off all the lights inside and hopped in. As soon as our eyes adjusted I regretted not going in earlier in the week. The night sky was lit up with more stars than I have ever seen. I saw the Milky Way, I saw shooting stars, I saw so many stars they began to grow fuzzy. It was amazing. Of course I wrote a poem about it.
All the Stars in Utah
We went outside late, the air finally
cool enough to not feel like thick tar
in our lungs. We shut
off all the lights, let our eyes adjust
to the dark, watched the night sky erupt
with more stars than I’ve ever seen.
The longer we stayed the more
the sky exploded till the only
constellation we could find
in the mass of stars
was the Big Dipper, the Milky Way
visible, a wash of stars
against the black.
.
Home from our vacation
the night sky has returned
to normal, average. I paint
my nails black, add a layer
of silver sparkle over it. Imagine
it’s the stars we saw
in Utah.
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