stars and gods

I say I admit it

I have no idea what a star is.

We are on the porch

because my mother doesn't let us smoke inside.

I am looking at the stars with my father.

He points to the sky with his cigar

and asks do you think that one is dead already?

I say I have no way of knowing.

The cigar could be pointing at anything.

He says I think that star has been dead

for thousands of years

and we aren't looking at anything really.

I say if we could wait long enough

then we would know for sure

that we'd been staring at nothing this whole time

and then laugh like gods. 

...

(k)