Counting Stars

Counting Stars

Jessica Kim

Sometimes you liked

to talk about sunflowers

and how they seemed to capture all

the bits and rays of time

in one botched bloom.

It’s days like this when I remember

how you liked to bite the corners

off of your paper, and

how you always hand-delivered every

parcel and letter sometimes filled

to the brim with chattering

bits of yes’s and no’s.

We would sit at the top of the hill

and you would count each cloud

resembling the back of a child’s hand

mixed with the residue of a drizzle

and with each finger you’d name each

little ray of light as if it were your own,

and what does it matter about those stars

when your light is more numerous

than the sands and the seas

from here and there,

and out to wherever

you may now be.