The buttons' journey:
find a threshold,
slip over and stay put.
All day they hear
that little thread of
x-in-the-ears.

At night
each goes back
through its own darkness.
Star after star is led out.

Like in the story:
and then the sea parted
and the exiles crossed
to safety.

Lie down now, sleep,
dark knots, until
daylight floods you
with a body again.