Night vision

His whole life
he has dreamed of
a Himalayan sunset

and now on a bus
20 miles from Pokhara
he is staring at the freckles
on the back of a stranger’s neck

they are a constellation not
unlike the southern cross
studding the night sky
of her nape
slender tanned familiar

and outside
Annapurna glows
impossible shades of
pink and red
and something nothing
like orange

and he is lost
in the night sky of
a stranger’s neck.