The Night Sky

We thought and thought about the sights

to show our visitors.

If we turned east, we would ride down

to Quoddy Head.

Westward, we would pass the hardscrabble

farmlands.

Heading south, we would follow the Kennebec

and the Androscoggin.

If north, we’d eye the knife edge of Katahdin.

And then we remembered-

Arriving here, we’d hauled the telescope

to a hill over Cobscook Bay

and set our sights on the night sky,

waiting for hours

for the world in its revolution.

We could hear the small teeth crunching,

the whir of wings,

the yearning of the white-tailed deer.

Kathleen Ellis of Orono teaches in the English department of the University of Maine and coordinates the annual POETS/SPEAK! event at the Bangor Public Library. Her most recent collection of poems is “Entering Earthquake Country.”