Asphalt Stars

Three AM

Lonely houses on lonely streets

Lonely kids tapping lonely feet

Avenue dark but for one yellow light

One boy considering, “fight or flight?”

Three AM

And just two streets over

One girl’s father never comes home sober

Avenue dark but for one yellow light

But the red on her arms makes an orange night

The world is upside down and backwards

And these scattered yellow lights

Are like stars in the asphalt skies

Silent cries for help from souls broken like potsherds

Three AM

Textbooks stacked against her like cards in Vegas

Her last year of high school but she still feels aimless

Avenue dark but for one yellow light

One girl’s hand with two more essays left to write

Three AM

On the wealthy end of town

One boy’s parents can’t seem to quiet down

Avenue dark but for one yellow light

They’ll never agree on who’s wrong and who’s right

The world is upside down and backwards

And these scattered yellow lights

Are like stars in the asphalt skies

Silent cries for help from souls broken like potsherds

Constellations of these potsherd people

Spread into galaxies of dying dreams

So remember, when it’s you

Awake at three AM,

You are not alone

Reach out your broken fingertips

To the other yellow lights on dark avenues

And let your fragments become a part

Of the world’s largest mosaic

And let your pain become beauty