Rain Check

It's just gone 9, as we leave down the path

Dog pulls stops then sniffs as I trundle on past

Down the street as I fiddle with gloves round the corner

adjusting my collar when...

Dusty awe, settles

on a slowing instant gaze

Lights

Street head flood big company signs

Like Embers in smoke or

'Close Encounters' on an old fuzzy screen

I know what they are but for now they are not

Just lights

But silent amber stars, resting

Nestled in a misty bedding

On clearer nights they hum as chorus

The denser parts buzz

Drops of cream on orange streets

With a painter's twitch of red or blue

Like discrete spills

Just for now, it is the valley's eternal slumber

The frosted glass of late-winter's night

Both a mask and its casket

Dog presses on

And so, do I

---

Ten coming to and full circle walked

We return at the hilltop

to jot pen to pad in my head

But gone is this spectacle promising rhyme

Now fog bogs the valley

The stars hang mute

And not in silence's melody

But the piercing ring of songs ended

Still, I smile

And knowing why

Look on

The whole dog wags and I

Consider a fleeting moment's joy, yet

 Poetic as a walk can be

Dog stinks of wet, and jumps on me

 So thought switches to you, my absent friend

And the rain check you took to stay home and dry

So to give me this evening to share with the valley

 And knowing I might preserve it thus

It is kept forever, for both of us.