Constellations

My dad tried his best to educate us on the constellations. I know names and locations of the important stars like Vega, Archterous and Deneb (which was going to be my name if I was a boy, not according to my mother.) I was also repeatedly corrected when referring to a shooting star because, "It's a meteor, there's no such thing as a shooting star." Now, when I say to my friends, Hey, did you see that meteor? they have no clue what I'm talking about. I know the summer sky better than the winter sky, because we'd stargaze at my cottage in the summer. The winter sky was saved for my dad's telescope, which he built himself from materials like old seatbelts and construction paper. He used to have to lift me to see through the eye piece, and I had no idea what I was looking at half the time.

It's funny how knowledge gets passed down like that. Little things like making grilled cheese, folding laundry, brushing your teeth... they're constant. You forget that you had to learn them from someone in the first place.

"It was just another night

with a sunset and a moonrise not so far behind

to give us just enough light to lay down underneath the stars

listen to all the translations of the stories across the sky

we drew our own constellations"

-J.J.