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