Night Falls on the Neighborhood

after a painting by Peter Janzen

Rows of low houses recede
into the collecting dark.
Asphalt street is iridescent

with spills of streetlamp and oil,
walkways lead to shut doors,
and palm trees scrape high

against the blackening cobalt sky.
Each house is a locked box,
separate and dimmed.

Nothing is revealed.
Only the ear pressed against
the rumble of a pillow hears

in first deep sleep the secret
of the neighborhood – that we all ride
earth’s original music,

that what binds us one to the other
is ocean toss and the rise of mountains.
That God’s brooding still hovers

over us, each one, each house.
And over the red car which leans against
the curb, ready to start.

Jean Janzen lives in Fresno, Cal.

Reprinted from Piano in the Vineyard by permission of Jean Janzen and the publisher, Good Books. Copyright 2004. All rights reserved. (See review, page 31.)