Light Torn in the Night Sky

I’ve started to worry
in the hours that blur
from one to another
after midnight and before
the birds at dawn.

Not my style to disrupt sleep over nothing,
but somehow I have a contract with the silence
to stand guard and wait for the announcement of morning
or the blinking out of the light torn in the night sky.

It doesn’t seem to matter
that my mind is quiet
and not particularly urgent
to talk

but my skin
has begun to sing
loudly to a lover
who will have me
no longer
and I am not embarrassed
to admit I don’t mind staying behind
to watch her find her way
to that country she has not visited
in years.

The inland sea is so beautiful here.
The fault lines rumble gently in the distance
like a train heading north.

Perhaps if I am patient
I might even see her smile
or watch her rest her eyes in the pleasure
of slumber after sunrise.