Wednesday, September 19, 2012

FADE TO BLACK

photo: ralph murre


FADE TO BLACK
by Linda Back McKay

As clotted clouds
crowd the sky

dry grass rasps
against fence posts.

The creek is scoured
with rocks.

How they hold
themselves fiercely

against landscaped
yards where

shards of daisies
stay innocent,

where summer
air sluices with

the sibilance of
grasshoppers,

katydids and peepers.
All the world

must die. Only
rocks remain

unscathed by human
folly until

an unseen hand
brings down

the window shade.


~ first published in The Next Best Thing (Nodin Press)