Night's Leave

Light rises from the horizon

Brilliant reds, blues and pinks

All shine brightly in morning’s twilight.

Over the landscape sweeps my eyes

Over looming metallic buildings

Windows dubiously shining

Hinting at some scandalous secret.

Over tree tops

Leaves still green, but on their edges

Sunset colors fringe.

Over bubbled beetle cars

Windshields fogged over

In morning’s mist.

Long shadows creep from shrubbery

Reluctant to retreat from Midnight’s Adventures.

Small mammals and birds emerge from hidaways

Morning grass is cool against the soft pink skin of their paws.

Now people walk

In day’s break,

Heads down, eyes red, steaming coffee in hand.

The taste is bitter to their tongues

But fastens their beating hearts.

Into the bubbled beetle cars they enter,

Eager to shake off mornings sudden chill.

Where once there was nights quiet

Metallic Engines roar.

Rough pavement steams

Still possessive of nights chill

In daylights heat.

On their way to work

People pass me,

Bleary eyed and tired in their beetle cars

Realizing they didn’t eat

Now their stomachs growl in protest

Threatening to eat them from the inside out.

In their rush to get someplace

They clog the veins running between metallic buildings

Like plaque in arteries.

And as the day begins to run

And the cities heart pumps again

The night retreat into the nooks and crannies

It’s world disappearing

In the sun’s light.