House at Dusk
Upstairs a door is closing -
voices evaporate.
The heat of the day is gone.
Outside,
spent lilacs burnish color
onto panes of glass.
Trees spin darkness against the sky.
The garden is iridescent.
White clusters
of viburnum globes shimmer
in the filtering shadows.
The earth shifts.
Then, a gust of wind roars
through the trees.
Clouds move in, but not before the stars
begin to move across the sky.
They leave their pallor sails to the wind
while a crisp white moon
is forever moored to the tides.
Jan Darrow 2025
First published by Poppy Road Review
