Ars Poetica for Horizons of Earth and Sky
By Shirley Jones-Luke

We can’t go beyond my view
    bug-eyed skewers, slits of sight
on the edge of air, I can almost see the line
    this existence lives in the atmosphere
that’s why when we fall, we fall hard
     through layers of clouds, blanketing
lightning & thunder, watching stars
   twist out of the way, caught napping
is night, jolted awake by the noise,
we are flat pieces of flesh, earth’s skin
is a board, write a banner, praising the planet,
we land on the surface, launching tons of dirt
& rock into the sky who squats it away with
a lightning bolt, we laugh as we are pelted
by soil & insects take their revenge in our hair,
we care not, the edge is within reach