Lost Sky

When I was young we used to visit my grandparents on the Mojave Desert. Every night my brothers, sisters and cousins and I would lie outside in our sleeping bags and talk and look at the sky. It was absolutely brilliant, with billions of stars. The Milkyway galaxy casted off into eternity. Satellites drifted by and planes made their slow course across the panorama. The drama was punctuated with the flashing zip of falling stars. Years later, after my grandparents had passed on, I drove by their house at night. The area had been so built up that the sky was just a dull glow of haze and reflected light. The stars aren't gone of course, but its just getting harder to remember what they looked like.