White Night Terror by Emily Strauss | Really System: Issue Four

White Night Terror

Emily Strauss

Sleeping under a full moon
in a grimy county park, overhead
lamps glaring on a frozen diamond
the infield like a skating rink
the weeds rimed white with ice,
thick fog hung between the moon,
the lights, the frigid ground all reflecting
white like infinite mirrors—
the night too bright, too cold
I lay huddled in my bag in the dirt
waiting dull with sleep but I heard
faint gravel steps, a twig disturbed
eyes wide open in the glare
this last day of the year— alone

Emily Strauss has an M.A. in English, but is self-taught in poetry. Over 200 of her poems appear in hundreds of online venues and in anthologies. The natural world is generally her framework; she often focuses on the tension between nature and humanity, using concrete images to illuminate the loss of meaning between them. She is a semi-retired teacher living in California.

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