Stars Are Purple In the Daytime

(for Debi)

Like pancakes for breakfast

mornings are mutable

always different

with the same ingredients.

This morning

the hugging clouds -

the ones embracing pine tips

poking into the horizon -

put on a red robe.

When they changed

into a melon housedress,

the party clouds -

wispy and flying high -

modeled pink lace

with blue sky peeking through

and I wonder where

the purple might be.

Of course.

The night-white stars

in the daytime,

my four-year-old says,

are purple.