Light Heart

It is so dark I can’t see my feet but the Big Dipper is hanging in the sky so close it looks fake as if someone strung lights over our house to trick us and I stumble in the dark, worried that I’ll twist my ankle and end up in intensive care like old people do with the slightest malady but my dog Swirl is sure-footed and everywhere he stops to pee our new dog Punchy stops making the night walk worth it but also worrisome, my fear of falling or mishap heightened by people I know who are sick or dying, making me think I am next except I can’t leave the earth now that this new dog trusts me to be here and by the time we get home, the Big Dipper has receded but there is a freighter on the lake and its lights shine as if it’s Christmas already.