Half life
It all depends which way you turn in the half
light, in the space between day and night
or between one year and another.
It affects how much your eye adapts, and how dark
or bright the sky you face, how soon or late
for you the night draws in.
And when you walk in the hollow dark at dawn
you feel the expanse of the air around you while a glimpse
of light turns the foreground ocean grey.
Why did you choose the heaving bulk of the hill,
the patchy dun of the paving stones in the lane,
the muzzy form of the car in the car park?
You who’d always loved the trees and fields
why did you walk towards the failing light?