Sports field lights cast a pallid film
of luminescence on all first
surfaces, that mixtilinear
layer of leaves, blades, poles, sidewalks,
people and duffles, leaving the
surrounding darkness to threaten its return,
waiting in the shadows of opacity.
Moths and grass mites stagger. Pages
of a notebook, gray hair, the pre-
mature signs of mortality,
transparent and jejune, wanting.
We become what we practice:
the embodiment of those pushy stances and football maneuvers
or patience with strangers who seek direction.
