Walk

Around here the flicking of a bic

Illuminates ghoulish faces

Puffing sweet blue cigar smoke

That lingers in a cloud around us.

Bull frogs throat their song

As crickets play violins

For all who care to listen.

We walk.

Along a seemingly dead quiet road

An occasional car thunders by

Its red tail lights lighting up the night sky.

We stop at the crossroads

Leashes in hand.

Careful now

The road is barely lit

by the full white moon.

We turn on a one lane country road

With fields on either side.

Walking down the center of the road

We avoid the possibilities of falling in the ditches.

No one walks in the fields at night

They belong now to coyotes and wild dogs

Who run beside us in the outer layer of the corn stalks

Waiting for a fatal miss-step.

Having just passed an old cemetery

That was once in ruins

Now cleaned up by an Eagle

As his service project.

We stop just beyond the cemetery.

I hand my brother the leash

And walk to the side of the road

Right by the white railing of a small bridge.

I relieve myself.

Taking the leash

We continue to walk

Past country homes spread out

along either side of the road.

We are now in the village

Just a few blocks from where we live

The coolness of the night

Has just started to chill us

To the bareness of our bones

Just as we reach the front lawn

Of our home.