20150623 (night)

It wasn’t a dark and stormy night

On the second floor where I sleep

Three street lamps steadily burn

Their brilliance screened somewhat by trees

And in the summertime leaves also

Another which flickers into glare 

Then fades or sputters to light again

Seems a fixture of every Cleveland neighborhood

I’m glad we’re not left out

I put curtains up but rarely close them

The punishment for looking is seeing

My ivory porcine hulk 

As I change to my nightshirt

Even if I’m falling asleep to some 

You Tube crap after midnight 

By the time I shut off the computer

The first floor lights and get upstairs 

I’m wide awake again 

I’ll read till drowsiness returns

That’s my time for reading

Critters nestled in against my thigh

No competition for my attention 

Parties next door or noisy pedestrians 

Intrude only if they sound interesting

The book regains my gaze then lights out altogether

How much water can the ground soak up

Of this Mailman’s Rain the nightly drench

With daytime dry is going strong now for a week

It’s popping inside mortar from my foundation stones 

I don’t need another thing to fix

I wake to the thackle crack of thunder

Outside and watch the waving patterns 

On my walls of leaves swaying in the wind

A strobe-like flash freezes their flight

Followed in a second by a loud Sizzle-Boom

It's blowing the other way so I 

Leave my windows open and revel

In the cool breathing of the room

A red four thirty seven glows on my clock

Awake enough to play the kid’s count between 

The flash and the slam they’re getting closer

By four fifty I felt one explode with the light

Rattle the bed the night table my teeth

The trees in my back yard were still bending

To the wind no branches grounded

By five something the storm had moved away

The rain quieter stayed Oh feces I was still up

The dog calm and warm weighed against my hip

I let the cat who understood lick my eyebrow

Till I slept

c. J.S.Manista, 2015