COUNTRY BOY RETURNS TO UNIVERSITY

The night stars, I’m going to miss them

light up the dark sky, like Dante’s god.

From here, on this cold hill, it seems 

the earth is dark but heaven is bright.


I’ll miss the stars when I go back

to late night, street light revelries,

and a heaven so polluted and orange 

that the sky might seem empty to you.

 

To me they are two separate worlds:

cities of people and man-made stars,

the country with the lingering gods –

One poorly reflects the other.

 

Michael A. Arnold is a graduate of the University of Sunderland and Northumbria University. He is based in North East England, and has previously published essays and short fiction. His influences include Seamus Heaney and Robert Frost.