the summer triangle
not a constellation
three bright stars from three
the lyre, the swan, the eagle

it rides high on summer nights
and the Milky Way flows through it
the river of heaven

a shape made only by where we stand
Altair seventeen light years away
Vega twenty five
Deneb a hundred times further

light that left seventeen years ago
light that left twenty five years ago
light that left when the pyramids were already old
arriving together tonight

the weaver, the cowherd
and the magpie bridge
turning together
around a point where no star is
