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.