Optical illusion

The greatest of all illusions
           is the sky in all its manifestations
it simply doesn’t exist :
           that space where it rains or snows
or blows up a storm or brings us
           a wide blue summer’s day
does not exist though so often
           our hopes are pinned upon it

there is light and there is dark
           and there is the air and beneath it
the earth of the imagination
           the very substance of our lives
that we tread daily
           while raising our godforsaken eyes
up to the heavens for some sign
           even though every orientation
we could ever need is always here
           within the flesh of our hearts

John Lyons