-1-

On Tuesday, the porch light burned out
It stopped making light as soon as I flipped the switch
And I kept turning it back and forth for a while
Expecting it to change its mind and turn on after all
But it didn’t, and it stayed dark outside, which was okay.

-2-

I think some photons from my defunct light
Escaped Earth’s dense atmosphere and made it to space
Traveling to other worlds, un-interfered with
Perhaps the very last photon to leave the light
Is now two light days away from the back porch.

-3-

A sphere of dark expands into vacuum
Dim incandescent skin surrounds it, a brief history of a back yard
That time the opossum came and ate the dead bird
Or when the house wrens built a nest in the patio umbrella
And were not at all disturbed by light going on and off

-4-

Feeling the slow gears at night comforts me
Elucidates the veiled shadow-consciousness
It is a calm perfect tone, the opposite of fearsome
When we run out of coffee we drink tea instead
When we run out of light, we use the dark to illuminate things.