The world is turning
and a longitudinal arc dips slowly
away from the sun towards the darkness.
Somewhere along this littoral lies our city.
The city never wholly closes down.
Although in countless homes they're mostly sleeping,
elsewhere there's someone working through till dawn.
Consider the light, or rather
the lights, for sources are many and varied:
from the steady moonlight of shop windows
to the constellations of street lamps strung out
along the tarmac
and traffic lights winking.
And here, look, the headlamps of law enforcement:
a police car on conspicuous patrol, watchful
as the late-night revellers
give way to the Night's own players. ... ...
© John Looker 2015
From time to time I have been posting extracts from my book The Human Hive (Bennison Books 2015, through Amazon). These are the opening lines from a long poem entitled The Night Shift. The book itself considers life through the prism of people at work.
My best wishes to you all for a happy new year – there’s always hope.
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