Night Souls
Over 30 years in human services working for and with people with developmental disabilities.
creative common 0
Tonight on my leather couch alone
I watch the lights of the city
Push at the blackness
And I wonder about a night long ago,
Our first encounter, the spark of recognition
That pierced the veil of sight.
I remember how you entered the room,
Settled into the lumpy couch.
I watched from the overstuffed chair.
You smiled, offered a beginning question,
And the Id danced with joy and the recognition
Of the ancient. The night slipped away like time.
Tonight, a new deck of cards lay on my chrome and glass table,
Tightly wrapped in cellophane like my well-intentioned life,
Routines preserved into infinity, a time capsule
Of lesson unlearned.
I ponder the number of lives
It takes to find the path of joy. Instead I reach
For the telephone where a connection awaits me
And like the mirage of my life
The night slips away.
© 2018 Kathy Burton
