I grew up in the countryside,
on a farm with the nearest
neighbor a quarter mile away.
Every night the stars shone like
unreachable precious jewels
adorning eternity– and I felt
very, very small and yet,
strangely, also very, very old
and more, oh, so much more
than my daytime self drunk
on the petty and the mundane.

Now I live on a quarter acre
with neighbors on my left and
neighbors on my right and
neighbors across the street and
a big city so near it cloaks even
the light of stars at night and
I am left only with the memory
of eternity….

– L.j. Carber