Midnight & The Tall House

Midnight & The Tall House

after Williams

I

Hard, dark night

open wide,

our yellow window light

addresses trees, shaping

canopies to hide the grass

beneath,

where crickets wing a song.

Not long

we're held this way,

you & I,

a sort of gray

haven hedged by

black sky, black soil,

black cricket

& blacker music rising

in his silver clear wings.

II

Wind sweeps out & down, slips over

elm tree, sound

-ing,

sounding

sound

& rounding out the dark.

To know

the park is sleeping, slide &

swing inert;

to know

the dove wing

covers doveling heads

in eaves above,

this is love,

feathered night pulled

past our eyes,

nest full,

sky lanterns

winking dull,

soft wind rocking

broad bough, stretching

closer every pane of glass.

III

Outside, below us

the sun is forgotten,

the impatiens are muted, drooping

down to ground

& dirt & dung & earthworm,

showing quiet colors:

earth colors, night

colors,

browns, dull rust,

their thrust toward sky

forsaken.

Inside, we trust

diminished sight,

open-palmed,

eyes held wide, ears alive.

Touching, twining

spinning colors out of night

-wool,

wind-rhythm,

skin-scent:

impatient love.