Night Hike

From here in the sky,

The high hills of the night,

Los Angeles is like a sea of fire;

If I were a wizard

Emerging from a thousand years

Of wandering through great forests 

And deserts and plains,

I would think that I had come upon

Some sacred kingdom

And fall to my knees in awe.

There is something out here

In these dark hills.

The birds must be sleeping,

For they do not sing anymore

As the red clouds turn cold 

Over the sea.

And something in my soul

Cannot conceive

Of a thousand birds bedding down all at once,

Huddling in unison into a thousand hidden nests,

Somewhere in these shadows.

We put an American flag on the moon,

But I cannot see it from here.

I see only a beauty 

More startling than death

As the spiralling arms

Of the pale sycamores

Make their wild dance

Across a thousand naked stars.