The Astronauts on the Ceiling

The astronauts on the ceiling

Are discovering
New stars

The stars are plastic

But they glow in the dark

And from down in the bed

Little Marie

Shines a flashlight up

At her favorite explorers

Little Marie’s mother

Is a painter

Who has created

An entire universe

On her bedroom ceiling

Because she knows

That sometimes

She gets scared

Sleeping in the dark

In her own bed

And so her mother told her

That the light is never far

From the darkness

And to illustrate her point

She illustrated

Moons and comets

And shooting stars

But Little Marie

Was too little

To reach up to her ceiling

And find the light herself

So her mother painted astronauts

Who could discover the light

On her behalf

Little Marie gave each of them names

And counties of origin
And people they miss back home

Every night

Before bed

Little Marie and her mother

Say goodnight

To each of the astronauts

On her ceiling

And they promise

To write letters

To the loved ones

Of the astronauts

Letting them know

That their astronaut family

Is a-okay

And that they’re doing the good work

Of finding the light

In the darkness

Of a little girl’s room

On top of the beautiful paintings

There are the plastic glowing stars

And foam planets

That Little Marie’s mother

Hung from the ceiling

To give it

A feeling of an installation

Which is a word that means
When an artist

Takes over a space like a room

And turns it into one big

Piece of art

Soon, Little Marie’s bedroom

Looked like a planetarium

And so at night

She didn’t feel the loneliness

Of a day ending

But the promise

Of a night beginning

At first, she thought her mother

Had solved one problem

By creating another

For while she was not afraid

She couldn’t imagine sleeping

With so much going on

So many adventures

Her astronauts were having

And so many new worlds

And constellations

To unveil

But night after night

She would begin

Counting all the stars

Dotted along her ceiling

Only to find herself

Slowly nodding off

And venturing into

Her own special Universe

Behind her eyes

Where the lights were more

Magnificent than anything

That could be created

By paint and plastic

But even in her dreams

Little Marie would see the astronauts

In some dreams

They would hold their hands out to her

And she would find herself

Floating up to the ceiling

Of her own bedroom

Shrinking as she went

So that now the planets

That were only the size of tennis balls

Were greater in size

Than Earth itself

The stars caught fire

And glowed

The moons radiated

And orbited

And the astronauts

Handed Little Marie a helmet

And welcomed her

To the team