The night rolls in obliterating dusk
A silent sea of musky solitude
The breeze, by noon a fellow, brawny, brusque
Reclines beyond the slope, chaste and subdued
Against the skyline stricken silhouettes
Of June’s nocturnal choir stands erect, mute
The whisper of enchanting minuets
Have fallen to the croon of autumn’s flute
The quiet like a satin mantle drapes
Its edges over midnight’s maudlin shapes
Before my eyes a strange menagerie
Of moments chant an off-beat pantomime
As fragment-echoes of vague memory
Awaken; with such disregard for time
But now beneath the vast moon-spangled night
The past drifts to me, surreal, like a mist
Yet oh, to reach and touch; I cannot quite
Or feel that place where youth recklessly kissed
Our naive mouths; while we were full of dreams
Without a second thought of moment-streams
Here on the hem of midnight’s onyx veil
A madrigal of moments taunt, beseech
The sable skyline soon once more will pale
And pluck the baby from its mother’s reach
The ambiance of autumn sheds its coat
In russet rivers garnishing the earth
Love stings the eye and aches within the throat
For surely this is life’s singular worth
To love and to be loved; it is too much
The night rolls in; I hunger for your touch
© Janet Martin
