Open the curtains
To see a night
Stripped
Of its stars
No moon
To distract those watching
Keenly,
No paraphernalia
To divert from the relentless fact
That
The night felt lonely
Who was awake, aware
Noticed
The absence of light
So persistently reflecting
The silent waters of souls
No moon
To make them jump with
Its mocking gravity
And make them forget
That they too were like the night
Lonely
Because no one was there
To ask her
If she was afraid of ghosts
They never listened to her gasp
Helplessly watching sleep drown people
In the oceans of their dreams
Uncaring as they called out in the darkness
But what could the night do?
As they blamed her in the morning
She had no horses to send…
This sad, sad feeling
She knew too well
And so did those
Who felt
Yet, she knew
In an unsaid strength of her own soul
That she had to move on schedule,
To smile in grace, even as she felt tremors
Gaining in momentum underneath
She and they and the cracks,
Knew
That she wasn’t alone!
#This poem is inspired by the painting NightHawks by Edward Hopper