seeing stars

i do see stars from this home finally

for months, now, the light pollution

and industrial smoke plus Oregon mist clouds have colored my night sky

blocking all but insistent planets

until early this morning – not much

past midnight – faint stars beckoned

and the shoulders and dim belt –

but no dagger - of Orion

so glad to see heaven’s lights

but sad to remember just decades

ago when the Milky Way was a bright

path above, paralleling my driveway