“Good night,” I say to you
In darkness of barren crescent moon
Before this steel-laden gate
So strongly standing at late

How precipitous it rises
Secured by a four-digit code
Ten-thousand possibilities, the one
I forget, if I have ever known

Rested upon a cool steely spade
A dark silk figure stares intently
Down upon me, silently, unmoving
Familiar, almost, ‘lest my mind deceive

Returning my eyes to her,
I see but a dimmed silhouette
Of gently moving lips and stony eyes
Repeating, “…and nothing more”

“Go home,” she echoes, “and forget
This passing girl who does not
Belong to you yesterday, today,
Tomorrow, or thereaft’

I feel the warmth of her
Hand brushing my cheek
But for how long has it been
And why, you tease, must it end?

A raven’s squawk screeches
In the thickening night air
As she turns and walks away
Towards the shifting gate

“What is the code?” I beg
In a nearly-resigned tone
As she passes through closing bars
Whilst my chest tightens in anticipation

Only after the click of locks
While she continued, unstopping,
Did I struggle to hear her murmur,
“Never will you know”

At home, as I lay in bed’s rest
The chime of the grandfather’s clock
Sounds against these empty walls
A fresh twenty-four hours await ahead


But just as my lids fall sullen
I am violently stirred from slumber
By the deafening bellicose rapping
Of that same familiar night bird

On my bedroom door.