Night Walk

by Leslie Crane

On the fragment lawns
a rumpled line of thought
lies glazed with indifference.
A braided theory of
light levies a tax
against the implacable,
woolen darkness.

The night, a coliseum of
silence, swells
against its walls while
echos of secret
laughter invest mute chapters
of pavement
with improbable sense.

The wind blows solemn and dire.

Beasts howl, decry the
sins of their peers. Window
frames, like ports of
sponge castles,
breathe rumors
into the sea.

-- 1971, Leslie Crane