You defended me
when, falling back,
we gazed on stars
and I volunteered,
no longer thinking,
‘Makes you feel
so insignificant
somehow,
doesn’t it?’

That roused the philosopher
and he turned on me,
anxious not to let it stand,
to demonstrate that in
an ideal world,
the stars need not
exist at all.

But you defended me
when side by side,
we shared a shield of
common understanding
that said yes,
in our separate ways,
we were both feeling
very small
indeed.