The Coming of Night

by: Patrick Lee Hebert

The coming of night

brings darkened endeavors

bright awakenings

are deafened momentarily

ritualistic living

drastic measures

they are only dreams.

The man whose face is ashen

speaks with authority that is unpronounced

his pallid cheeks quivering from the pain

of  a thousand years of hurt.

He has wisdom though…

Engraved on his soul,

are the intentions of countless thousands

he has chosen to carry.

Like a fool,

he continues…

when no-one…

no-one is listening.

In sullen loneliness

he retires to the past.

The lost years were glorious…

although no one can seem to remember them.

He relives the past nightly…

all those years of energy waste

lapse his already livid memory,

and bring weariness.

He sleeps,

dreaming of golden forests,

but waking alone to the breeze,

coming from a single window…

and living yet another day…

awaiting the night.