Far From Our Empty Beds

Night rambled into day between
billiard balls and
unmarked footsteps leading me
to the passage home while the sun, warm
and dry,
spread its invasive fingers across the empty asphalt beetle paths
colliding with benches and blades of grass throwing
shadows at precarious
angles lighting the mountain
tops on fire was a slow motion spectacle I watched
eyes both opened and
closed
hypnotized by the gentle to and fro of a
swing and a breeze and
with me there
in
the mystical minute
three high school girls
unexpecting to find company
at this hour
smoking forbidden cigarettes and
awake to be awake far from
their empty beds.