Today’s prompt: “write a poem that … resists closure by ending on a question.” (http://www.napowrimo.net/day-two-6/)
Soft Dark Deep Night
There’s a sound:
Distant whistle,
Muted rumble,
Fleeting in the soft dark
Of the deep night.
It might be a train.
It might be an ancient beast
Awakening.
It grows more distant,
Fainter—a train on the hunt,
A beast rushing toward its destination.
There are stories you used to tell me
Which I will never attempt to retell.
They belong to you.
To soft dark nights
And empty spaces
Where we only knew ourselves.
Your voice in my ear
And your breath on my cheek.
Stories of monsters and angels
And men and animals
And storms and green growing things
And the mysteries of our universe.
Is this a beast hunting you now?
Is this a train rushing to meet you
At some far remote station?
Somewhere, here,
In the soft dark
Of this deep night?
John the Librarian 