a menacing stargazer

The spotlight of the late-rising crescent moon blinked through the trees.  Perseus soared high overhead, vaulting the earth as he has since the beginning of imagination.

Against the staid background of constellations, meteors flashed soundlessly.  Most vanished within the first heartbeat, but some few rained stardust from long white wakes.

Silent as the celestial shower, the hens listened apprehensively to the approach of heavy footsteps on the pavement next to the roost, the creaking protests of an old chaise lounge, a muffled rustle as a blanket was shaken out.  A long silence, then more rustling, creaking & heavy footfall, now receding in the direction of the dark house.

The reassuring silence slowly regrouped. Under the roost, moonlight flecked the ground as a breeze moved through the maples.  A hen rustled her feathers, and they waited together for the night to end.

Coo, coo, ca choo.