Everyday I walk
The streets grow evermore still
Stray kittens and rabid raccoons
Don’t mingle by garbage cans
The world has closed its doors
In anticipation of a dour winter
The slumbering town doesn’t look
Like it’s among the morning before the sun
But early night before the moon

For a while street lights cast a bizarre lambency
Among dank darkened roads
Concealed by sight-limiting water vapor
Yet I begin to see a powerful
Reassuring shimmer of light
Carefully peer over the edge
of the plant-choked lake
And then up over the dew covered suburban shingles

The world begins to stir slightly
Birds quietly chirp as if to be courteous
To the still unconscious people
But the twitters are soon
Drowned out by sleepy groans
As scolding alarm clocks
Summon a new day