‘Come O’Lovely Night’

How long has it been?

Since you rose with the dawn

Listened to sweet music

The excited chirping of optimistic birds?

Felt awash with a clean, clean feeling

The cool sensation of the rested earth?

Observed the senses awakening

Slowly, quite basic, after a sweet repose?

But soon, the earth’s hardened crust

And soon it’s molten matter

Is exposed to a relentless sun

And the harsher heat

Of a trillion living beings

The child is now awake and afraid

The brow with worry prematurely furrowed

The eyes troubled, the mind muddled

And as the new day progresses

Men and women, supposedly in God’s image

Rush, push, jostle and peddle,

Lest they fail to get ahead

Of the next equally frantic fellow

The day now has lost its luster

In its wake, disease, frustration, grief and sorrow

Life’s pleasures, food, drink and wine: no time, no time

So why rise with the dawn?

Much safer, much better, the nightly repose

If only it would never end

So warm, so secure, so full of rest

The child in worry-less sleep

No sign of unjust furrows on his brow

Men soft in softer dreams, arid finally rid of dreadful traits

Women in grateful slumber, within wombs of silence

Hurry up O’ lovely night

The dawn is nature’s trickery

Promising much, delivering grief and troubles

Man, woman, child, none spared

From undeserved, unjust and terrible trials

Come O’ lovely night

Put us out of such misery

Come O’ lovely night, tonight and forever.