Leonid

He fell the year I was born;
tumbling, somehow unscathed,
through the atmosphere
in the Great Storm of 1966,
to land on another world.

Hunkered into the beach
for camouflage,
he is generally unnoticed
except by small children.

Spotting him as a toddler
‘Lion’ was my first word, and,
as I uttered it,
tasting its wonder upon my tongue,
I felt his purr
thrum gently beneath my feet
and patted his rocky paw
as we walked by.

He became my refuge, confidant
confessor, friend;
the wisdom of millennia
held in his heart
and, every November
I spend one night with him.
We talk of life, love and light,
then, as the first glow of dawn
tints the horizon,
we sing to his starmates
as they fall.