‘…I go out walkin’ after midnight’
searching for you…’
– Patsy Cline
The darkness holds no special or
tangential fear for me
though it probably should
for there is huge difference
between the woodlands
I knew growing up and
decidedly urban environment
I live in now
Unrest last year propelled me
into our neighborhood
watch mobilization
observe, don’t engage, report
not heeding that advice we
mostly skipped non-engagement
gently offering pushback to
strangers
Looking back one thing I can say
is that many of us found or
rediscovered affinity for
our city during deepest night
sights, sounds –
same, not the same
teeming with life beyond our
patrols
Bonds if not friendships were
forged in those few weeks
of nocturnal hustle and bustle
we came, we saw, we engaged
we found we liked it
the rhythm, the aura –
neighborhood, nocturnal, alive
wide asleep
– Mark L. Lucker
© 2021
http://lrd.to/sxh9jntSbd
I was moving right along with your verbs – observe, engage, report, heed, skip, offer, found, rediscovered, teeming, forged, came, saw, engaged, liked …and then WIDE ASLEEP. Just loved it. Jolted me to a stop, so unexpected. Thank you!
Thank you. Glad you appreciated it, Sarah!
I love this Mark. I love the feel of this poem. In first stanza take out word “the” and is there a different word than tangential? It throws off the rhythm. Third stanza “affinity” lacks the powerful emotional connection expressed elsewhere in poem…Overall, I love this. Beautiful poem!
Great imagery. It really has a nice hiatorical feel to it.
Love this one, keen insight on somewhere I haven’t been.