No little cat feet this fog.
It just appears, it pounces;
A Hoosier Christmas Eve
Five degrees colder and the mist would be snow
A backyard away, the dull yellow glow
Of a strangers porch light
The streetlight in the distance
A faint star in a dark white sky
The naked Walnut and Chestnut trees
Drip cavernously onto the blacktop
The dark brown leaves, the last remaining corpses of the fall
Sodden on the partially frozen ground beneath.
A silent noisy night
Soon all will be calm
Each fortress enclosed in a dark white mist
One by one going dark
In anticipation of the morning.
The snow falls so lightly
Almost nonexistent except by feel
But fall it does
Inexorably covering the dead grass
The quiet is abundant
Broken only by the drip of the melt
And the hiss of distant tires
Slicing through the water
Behind me, home
Lit by the soft glow of interior warmth
And the colorful joy of the Christmas lights.
In front of me, darkness
Three distant porch lights in the blackness
It beckons, yet warns, this darkness
“Come to me, hide in me”, the gloom calls
“Disappear for a moment or forever,
But, do so on my terms, blindly, in the cold”
The light knows me; it needn't call out
Man is its master and it is Mans
The light knows I will turn and step back into its gaze.
Three steps then four into the darkness
Then with a shiver I turn and looking over my shoulder
Hasten back into the safety of what is known.
You stare down from your throne alone at the tip of the Knob
Too far from the road for knowledge,
You force my mind to provide unknown details.
Your haughty white columns reminiscent of a bygone age
Speak to me of wealth and respect for things past.
What truth is waiting up that long climb from the main road?
Do you sit among plush lawns or tortuous creepers?
Is the white glow from below, smooth satin,
or peeling weathered wood?
Are the furnishings on your Veranda white washed wicker,
or bleached bone dry rot?
And, what of your keepers, are they warm and snug inside you,
or, are you only a fond memory to someone far away?
An unsolved mystery, I look back to the road and continue toward home.
Curtkf