“Mizar” and “Alcor” in Winter

clearer, I spied the binary in the handle

of the Big Dipper dangling above my shoulder,

a pinprick twinkling by a blinding candle.

Absent the moon, its boreal corona,

I watched the stars rise east of Ellendale,

Guelph and Ludden, then wheel above Verona

and sleeping friends who farm near Englevale.

A thousand miles of road: I’d shunned the pavement

which bears the burdens I no longer ferry,

the cargo of material enslavement.

Six eagles hunted small game on the prairie.

An Arab prince’s fortunes once were measured

by blooded foals, by sons his wives could dandle,

by tributary quatrains to be treasured

and his eyesight: a pinprick by a candle.