Poem of the Night

(an oil painting after Constable….JKB)

 

 

The streets are gleaming tonight

as if a million stars were brought to earth,

flattened into urban mirrors

under lamp posts reflecting

an empty  nothingness.

 

It is a dull mid-winter night,

straining towards spring

with all intention of leaching

the dying season’s

last insult, unleashing it

upon mankind’s discomfort

one more time.

 

“A foggy day in London town”

Is what I think when I look down

This cotton-wool streetscape,

But that has tune and purpose,

And this muted stillness has none.

 

The rain left a muffling fog,

Mercifully erasing  stark bones

of tree limbs reaching to the sky.

Black beggars on seasonal parade.

 

Yet,

there is a strange beauty to the night,

Transforming what was common,

Dissolving borders, barriers, dimensions,

Making  a mirage, an alien oasis.

 

Heavy mists swirl around the ground,

Lift past the unfocused light

combine with the creeping gloom

And turn a fine hand to pale mystery.

 

Jane Kohut-Bartels

Copyrghted, 2020