With a million stars all around
the Perseids scratch like claws
striking sparks across the atmosphere.
Nighthawks chase gnats around our heads
swooping close to our faces, and
we lie back on this dark globe
watching it turn without feeling it.
Earth’s rotation falls behind
the Space Station’s orbit which cuts
between the open pincers of Scorpius.
At midnight the wind is still
desert-warm on the summit and
hunters rustle in the chaparral,
only atoms compared to Orion
who has seen the scorpion
and already fled.
For the dVerse prompt: “choose some lyrics, preferably one line from a favorite song and grow your own poem from it.” So I have used “Peaceful Easy Feeling” by Jack Tempchin:
“And I want to sleep with you in the desert tonight
With a million stars all around”
Jedediah Smith 
What a wonderful place to be for a starlit sky… the best part of any desert.
This is so beautiful. I will never forget the first trip I took out west and seeing with my own eyes the constellations, the milky way and the entire web of stars. This brings it to me.
The greatest star view I have ever seen is in Arizona, up on the Kaibab plateau. Stars so thick it was like solid walls of light.
That sounds amazing. My best memory is from when I was 18, I ate magic mushrooms (because it was the 90’s) and camped out on the sand at Elephant Butte Lake, NM. That’s when I saw a web connecting the stars. It was life-altering.
I can relate!
starry starry night…paint your palette blue and grey…lovely night sky. XX
I liked this line about the Earth turning: “watching it turn without feeling it”