Evening Report
by david harbilas

    Satan's silhouette appears in tabloid magazines
    and six-o'clock news spots
    that report groups of women
    congregating in wooded areas.

    The honesty of trees whispering God's name
    leaves gossip to find its way
    into television sets and the darkened hallways
    of drunken bars.

    These consecutive days of bad weather
    in New England
    restore a faith, however dismal.
    And though the weatherman gives the daily decline
    in sunlight by minutes,
    I know it takes longer for things to leave us:

    Dusk hides in my backyard
    under stones and in tall grass,
    the gate left open for it to walk away
    and into the world.






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