A Change of Light

Across the room, a change of light.
Looking up, you see the sun dip red

into the gulf, a darkness falling.
A landscape of light failing,

filling the room, a gentility
of shadows drifting over backs

of chairs, deepening the rugs,
dimming titles of books you spend

your evenings in. In this house
there is a common sadness: the sag

of good furniture, the litter
of magazines, the silience

after supper dishes. Lamp-dark rooms lie
unsatified with memories. Once the view

held a clothsline hung
with a child's nightgown.

What was once a flash as white
as perfect blankness, is now eclipsed.

Light so deep,
you could cast a line.

"Sharks in the Water" Pen and Ink by Ivan D. Young