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Deep Woods, Late Night
There are places beyond man’s illumination
when the campfire is embers and ashes,
when phones and flashlights rest in batteries,
when the moon has sunk or not yet risen,
when satellites and planes are delinquent.
In those rare, dark interludes one sees
the omnipresence of uncountable glows
and hears the whisperings of the stars
The Dog Walk
In the days before leash laws,
during my Belgian shepherd’s life
we walked the hour before midnight.
Holding close, wordless and untethered,
streetlights leprous sores on darkness.
My neighbors had shriveled inward
clasping for warmth and light.
We passed them unseen and unheard
but senses taut, we sometimes perceived
the scurry rustle of foraging night dwellers.
Once a feral dog chased our scents.
Half again burlier than a coyote,
it edged in, snarling, and we snarled back.
for this was our time and place
It sheered off, and we reclaimed the dark.
Ed Ahern resumed writing after forty odd years in foreign intelligence and international sales. He’s had over 500 stories and poems published so far, and eleven books. Ed works the other side of writing at Bewildering Stories where he manages a posse of six review editors, and as lead editor at Scribes Micro.