Blind Night, by Royal Rhodes

Black Hole in the Universe, by NASA (USA) contemporary

Blind Night

night has a hollow interior
where everything's soaked
in absorbent black ink
every particle of air
that clamors against
light's abandonment

night looks for light
any glimmer in an oil stain
or in black glossy fabric
and the tip of a match
that causes and ends in ash
banked in a fire pit

night catches the glint
of an old watch's hour hand
painted decades ago
with radium that was wet 
from the lips of girls
moistening their brushes

some nights streaking lights
form dots in a puzzle shape
to be connected by lines
drawn by the eyeless mind
but all of these with us
fall in a cosmic black hole

night looks for what is light
not knowing what it is
like the eye's black pupil
even the lashes are black
night gasps and blinks
startled by recurring dawn

Royal Rhodes
​
Royal Rhodes is a poet and retired educator who lives in a small village in rural Ohio. He enjoys listening to Classical music and reading poetry, ancient and modern. His poems have appeared in numerous literary journals, including previously The Ekphrastic Review and its challenges, for which he is grateful.