"Comet Fever

By one blue gleaming
the sidewalk crawls with water.
I listen to chatter and squeaks.
Most of it’s past.

Beyond my snug embrasure
except that lamp, night hides.
I watch what no one watches.
Sleep has taken all.

Unblinking star, I used to home
only as the row of them went out.
Then snuffed I as suddenly.
That was awhile ago.

Suburbanite's sentinel, catching nothing
night after night, not even cats:
rain and wind quicken you.
But I glare unchanged.

Out of a measured labor
where days cycle blind
I stepped to become a fiction
as one leaves a car

that no longer runs
by the side of the road.
The pavement's sheen is twinkling.
With a rush, the cataract resumes."

--Tono Bungay, Chick*n N*cks for Th* Soul (2012)