Dusk
Dusk, that bridge between the light
and the world of voles, ferrets, bats and hawks.
No one can hear the miracle
of the great sun dissolving into mists
or slipping over those distant
honey-colored hills. For most of us
dusk comes down to drawing
the curtains as wonder itself flares out
as the trees tether the sun’s last rays.
But isn’t dusk a prayer? The time
when priests across the Levant
beg for the return of light in the fullness
of time? When Jews praise God for dusk
and thank him for the night’s peace?
When Muslims hearken to the muezzin's Maghrib,
that last call at the eastern end of the day.
Also the time when boys in old Chicago
neighborhoods played a game, the winner
shouting, “First to see the streetlights on.”
Dusk’s sad knell.
Philip C. Kolin is the Distinguished Professor of English (Emeritus) and Editor Emeritus of the Southern Quarterly at the University of Southern Mississippi. He has published over 40 books, including twelve collections of poetry and chapbooks. Among his most recent titles are Emmett Till in Different States (Third World Press, 2015), Reaching Forever (Poiema Series, Cascade Books, 2019), Delta Tears (Main Street Rag, 2020), Wholly God’s: Poems (Wind and Water Press, 2021), and Americorona: Poems about the Pandemic (Wipf and Stock, 2021).
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