Daybreak

On tidal mud, just before sunset
dozens of starfishes
were creeping. It was
as though the mud were a sky
and enormous, imperfect stars
moved across it slowly
as the acual stars of heaven.
All at once, they stopped,
and as if they had simply
increased their receptivity
to gravity they sank down
into the md; they faded down
into it and lay still; and by the time
pink of sunset broke across them
they were as invisible
as the true stars of daybreak.

Galway Kinnel