Vega's Nylon Strings

24.3 lightyears away from the sun

Vega sings over her harp

in a subway station while rats lead her lover away from

the man who picks up the trash you throw next to the garbage can

and that man, some say, is her lover,

and when he slips in the fifty five cents,

Vega looks up and stops singing,

but the music is still heard

and it suddenly makes sense that

catgut is greater than nylon,

though neither man nor mortal can hear the difference,

and there isn’t always water in August because

her lover almost never misses the train because

her lover knows that Vega’s tears will rain because

Vega’s harp is shaped like it is handcrafted by the sun,

and maybe it’s just her bright blue eyes,

like an ocean before pollution,

and maybe it’s her bright blue eyes,

and her lover helped her clean them up,

but you think you’re falling in love

if not with Vega,

with Vega’s nylon strings.