look up in de sky

“Look up in the sky
That’s where your enemies are,”
Your mother says,

Inclining her head
To one side, a small smile
Like some child

About to relate some tale
With four letter words,
And those half-blinds eyes

Looking, pretending to see,
But making guess work
At a featured face,

And sorting through her mind
To find the right name
To go with the sound of voice

She only half hears. “He’s there,
Who led me a dog’s life,”
And her words trail off

As another thought invades
And leads down glades
Of her childhood ways

And the long summer days
Beneath light-blue skies.