Musings # 71 - Day Folds Into Night (published in POEM)

DAY FOLDS INTO NIGHT

A ceramic owl stares from the fence post

to scare away raccoon and vole.

At daybreak, the toddler in my arms

reaches for it – her ooh! an excited mimicry.

Inside, on a shelf stands Athena –

the owl her familiar, whispering in her ear.

In the news – another child,

lone survivor of a plane crash,

stumbles through dark woods,

following an owl’s melancholy call

toward the glow emanating

from a distant farmhouse.

Out my window, the night sounds –

undergrowth snapped by claw and paw,

screech and hoot, whoosh of wing,

the click blink of a mouse eye.

Tangled in a dream, I unwrap a package –

inside it, a golden owl

and a scrawled message

I cannot decipher.