Smaller than the diminutive trees
surrounding them,
the late-hour visitors
seem more figure and form
than actors in a universe
as large as ours.
See how minutely they gesture
as if anxious for understanding
against the growing dusk.
Night rides in on the river below.
We watch for a time as it swallows them
and turn away home.
Barbara Swift Brauer is a freelance editor whose work has appeared in journals, anthologies, and art exhibitions. Her collection, At Ease in the Borrowed World, was published by Sixteen Rivers Press in 2013. Her second, Rain, Like a Thief, will be released by Sixteen Rivers Press in April, 2019.
© 2018, Barbara Swift Brauer
Halfway Down the Stairs 