Pre-dawn cicadas
steady pulsing,
humidity chilled
dew seeps colander
straining the screen
door. Sliver of paper
cut moon stuck
above the willow-
shade, mushroom
cap clouds cotton
ball the sky punctured
with starry pinholes,
like a pencil-sharp
tip through black,
curling edges petal
out. Shadows skipper
the night to a close. In
a cut-and-paste world
of moon, tree, house,
me on the front step
stoop rinsed in
the calm sleeping
world – a brief
morning pause.
tamingthemilemonster 