Ease in Failure

Marconi Center, Tomales Bay 2015

The Sweet Taste of the Night

When I woke up my head was saying, "The world
will pardon my mush, but I've got a crush"
and went outside. The wind was gone.
The last of the moon was just up and the stars
brighter even than usual. A freighter
in the distance was turning into the bay,
all lit up. The valley was so still I could
hear the engine. The dogs quiet, worn out barking
all night at the full moon. Their ease in failure.
The ship came out the other side of the hill
and blew its horn softly for the harbor.
Waking a rooster on the mountain. It went
behind the second hill and I started back inside
the farmhouse. "All the day and night time,
hear me cry. The world will pardon my emotion,"
I sang from my bed, up into the dark, my voice
unfamiliar after not speaking for days.
Thinking of Linda, but singing to something else.

Jack Gilbert