Nightfall

I stood and let the night fall 

down around me. 

At the horizon the sky 

was palest pink; 

directly overhead, 

when I craned my neck to see, 

a lone star pricked through 

the growing darkness. 

Crickets sang, and katydids, 

but the birds were silent. 

The air was soft and barely moved. 

We were quiet, the evening and I, 

contemplating each other. 

I wrapped my sweater around my shoulders 

and dreamed as the mantle of shadowy gray 

drifted silently down over 

what was left of the day, and me. 

Poetry to Prompts

Written to the prompts of "letter" and "starlight".

Letter to Starlight and You

There is a certain shade of blue

that belongs to dusk,

a sky-blue-pink

that draws my eyes to the window,

that draws me out the door,

a softening of the hard line

where earth meets sky

so that I can see past the horizon

into everlasting space,

the space where you are

now that I can’t see you.

If the sky were a map

you’d be here, just above the line

where tree and air intersect,

a red pin marking the exact spot

where I saw you last,

bed-bound and bruised, breathing

one more and one more and one last

breath.

The sky was dusky that night, too,

headed toward black, and we two headed

in different directions; you to an unknown

destination and I to home, where

out my window, I watched the stars

blink into view.

Reading My Life

Yesterday's parting gift - waning sunlight kissing the highest leaves goodnight. Today is my last formal day of work. School will be out for the summer at 11:40 a.m. Tomorrow will be my first full day of vacation/retirement (which is official June 30 when my contract ends). So ends one chapter of my life. So begins another.

Day's End

I am wakened every morning by bird song and in the evening, the sun is sung down by the robins and the blackbirds, the finches and the orioles, the doves and the warblers. Deep in the woods the vireo calls good night, good night and if you're lucky, you'll hear the whip-poor-will sing.

You might catch a flash of blue as a jay wings its way home or see the swallows flash their feathers over the pond water in the waning light. The sun sets slowly through the clouds, turning them pink and then mauve. They float along the horizon like galleons in full sail, headed for tomorrow.





bottom photo: my yard at sunset

oriole photo credit: www.kiwifoto.com