Syndic No.45 ~ Bob Garmston
Night Fall
Written and Narrated by Bob Garmston
Oregon
Nightfall
shadows
lenghten
dark
boundnowhere
tracks
freight cars
rumble
wobble
clang
lurch
thisway
’nthat
clickity boom
gasping youths
sprint along
rocking cars
desperate
to grab
ladders
just out of reach
launching
small bodies
to boxcar sides
hanging on
momentum swells
cooling breeze
voices
juvenile
fade
behind
Oakland tracks
Oh dusk
this remembered ache
yearning a small place
unassailably private
to sleep,
secure
alone
this uncertainty
so many nights
repeat
on this mild night
tiniest ants
busying
thiswaynthat
under where
the skinny boy
hides
billboard
for shelter
endless night
burrowing below
the bloodshot eyes
of circling police
where was Gilbert?
freeway
off ramp or on?
San Rafael
another night
summerlike below
low branches
brushing ground
city park
oh Sixteen!
crusted levis
early dawn
peeeeee
cola for the day
San Francisco
or drizzling night
ceaseless rain
coldncolder
shivering
atop
steaming horse
lowered head
darkest barn
this
horse
warm
horse
smell
south of the city
morning
and
hitchhike again
or sweet lumber
essence
pine beams
layers
thiswaynthat
arranged carefully
left at night
alone
till small hands
quietly modify
create cave
safe for
a furtive body
a bed
harboring
assurance
refuge
San Diego
or Healdsburg
toastily warm
embers
dance
inside
beehive cones
tunneling underneath
DON’T
don’t SLEEP
unexpectedly
exits may fill
under fluttering ash
a blanket
last sleep
so warm
so warm
or further north
shivering
body
trembling
aching
bathroom floors
are cold
in winter service stations
told to leave
found
faded lobbies
instead
undeterred
pretending to belong
grim chairs
quickly dispatched
several places
finding finally
and at last
no better
even worse
lying down
ice berg
station wagon
car lot
Eureka
warmer finally
narrow cot
thin blanket
nighttime noise
clang
behind bars
city jail
or south again
rooftops
gained by
nearby fence
flat
safe
safest
safer
until
rolling over
corner puddles
rainy night
warm
once more
bars once more
double decker cot
whispered voices
across a butt
smooth child butt
roving hand stroking
‘til I screamed
Juvie Hall
rjg 9/27/21