A smile to say
“Goodnight, my friend”
Then again to
Welcome morning
In the darkness
Protect the gate
From those who carry
Cans of paint
These quiet hours
In the quiet streets
Shared by a few other strays
When being alone in my own skin
Offers a kind of camaraderie with other lone souls
Being alone in their own skin
Already
Standing in the street
Wary of taxis and buses
The trees obscuring
Already
In my hands
No tripod
The light
So very low
Contrast
So very high
Under a darkling sky
Near the end
Of the sun’s
Long good-night
By this light
No darker
click-cliick-cliiick
Exposures times three
Then merge exposures
To become one
In a too-small frame
With tree branches
Encroaching
While taxis and buses
Approaching
Held that lens
In my hands
With low light
And this frame
So this print
No better
But then too
Not bad
The regular stop
In the deep of the night
Homeward bound
Warmed inside
Allow the night
To enter frame
Count out seconds
Three by ten
Capturing
These timely glows
One from headlight’s driven thrust
Unfurls along the river’s edge
Another rises up
To meet the clouds
Escape from streets
Illuminate
I remind myself
It’s better to see
Things as they are
To see the dark
In the darkness
