No Stars (Poetry)

I do not want the stars tonight
they all can fold themselves away
and let darkness have the whole unmeasured stage.

They are not friends — those fickle lights
once wished upon some naïve time
I focused and indulged the urge to pray.

Rock-hearted bodies one and all
ignored my plea — indifference scoffs
reads callous from the almanac’s blank page.

Those stars can keep their shallow shine —
glass splinters wrapped in heaven’s cloth.
Blackness as it happens suits
                                the lonesome frame of mind.