Night Shift
Diane Dolphin
In the dead of sleep she wanders
down into the basement of her mind.
She sifts through clutter, sorting papers,
unpacking and repacking keepsakes,
shifting piles from one corner to another.
She sits on a crate, poring through albums
of photos, torn clippings of conversations,
late night whispers saved on scraps of linen,
detailed notes from old arguments.
She replays home movies, losing herself
inside them. Sometimes, the slant of sun and shadow
in the garden, the feel of his voice wrapped around
her name, the smell of Sunday coffee and eggs
fill her with light and she rises
through the worn floors into the perfect black sky,
the stars sharp as shattered glass. But as night gives
way
to pre-dawn gray, as her bedroom walls indiscernibly
shift
from gray to lilac, as rose and violet seep into the
flowers
on her quilt, green into the leaves and the silk robe
laid over
the chair, blue into the irises of her eyes, now open,
still in her mind, she is circling, circling above
the detritus, searching for a place to land.
"Night Shift" was first exhibited & published in Poetry & Art, Exhibit & Book, Wickford Art Association, 2013.
(c) 2013 Diane Dolphin. All Rights Reserved.
