Estrellitas, by Carlos Cumpian

Julian and Mia

sat outside

abuela’s casa,

watching heaven’s

sparklers hang quietly

in the bay of darkness.

Thinking they’d miss

one or a dozen

flashing tips,

falling from an

hidden angel’s scepter,

each tried not to blink,

and kept their chins lifted

like moon-struck coyotes.

With sore eyes and

stiff necks they were

just about to stop,

when the top of

the vast night sky

beaded up briefly

like a woodland moccasin

then rained bright

plumed cinders.

From “Armadillo Charm” by Carlos Cumpian (Tia Chucha Press: $10.95; 80 pp.) Copyright 1996 Reprinted by permission.