Last night I went upstairs to my bed with thoughts of you in my mind. Before I lay down I flicked on the light switch while I set my alarm clock. On the ceiling, my plastic glow-in-the-dark stars absorbed the artificial rays until they were full of their childish potency. Outside, lightning flashed and for just a moment, standing there in the strange light of my childhood bedroom, I was scared. Then I imagined your hand holding mine tightly and was able to turn the light off. The stars glowed down on me as I sank into bed-- still wrapped up tight in my silky bathrobe-- and laying my head on the pillow, I closed my eyes for just the briefest of moments. I imagined that you were there, and then I slipped away into the ethereal world of dreams. Somewhere above, the stars shone down on me and in my dreams I could see them populating the glowing sky above us.

As the night waned the power of those plastic glow-in-the-dark stars waned too. When I woke up at five to a flash of lightning they had been drained of all their power and simply hung on the ceiling, faintly green in the breaking day. The alarm clock went off and I hung my dreams up too, letting them dangle from the ceiling just out of reach.

When I lie down tonight all the power those dreams have accumulated during the day will shine forth and by starlight we'll forever kiss again, breathing into each other.