Published in Trouvaille Review
Still of the night
Outside my lighted house
the darkness waits
with ears pricked.
Trees hold back their breath
and put out feelers.
Black expanses gulp the stillness.
Stones shift, but freeze
as I revolve. The sky
is greyscale bar a single
red planet. There is absolute
silence, until ... a curlew thrills,
and an oystercatcher's taut
stitches pucker the vast
canvas of the night.
Outside my lighted house
the darkness waits
with ears pricked.
Trees hold back their breath
and put out feelers.
Black expanses gulp the stillness.
Stones shift, but freeze
as I revolve. The sky
is greyscale bar a single
red planet. There is absolute
silence, until ... a curlew thrills,
and an oystercatcher's taut
stitches pucker the vast
canvas of the night.
