Light Buckets

By Holly Singlehurst

If you want to catch rain, you use a bucket;
a bigger bucket, you catch more rain.
The same can be said for telescopes, which catch light:
the larger the lens, the more light it catches,
so astronomers call them ‘light buckets’.

There’s a hole in my bucket, dear Liza, dear Liza,
and the hole is a bright bulb trailing ribbons of gold on the carpet.
You, out in a thunderstorm, catching sparks in your cupped palms,
small suns burning rivers down your arms.

And laughter is simpler, shining from our eyes as pure light.
And a rainstorm at night sets the dry ground on fire.