Night Symphony

In the upstairs apartment
Someone wakes and moves,
Sending footsteps falling
Down into my dreams
Like snowflakes.

I move my head and open my eyes.

Terribly late,
In the depths of night,
A circle of whispers swirls around me:

My wife's gentle breathing
And the barely perceptible rise
And fall of her chest,

The coil and uncoil of springs
Under my shifting weight,

A distant heartbeat traveling
Shyly through the bed, tapping
On my ear with a quiet rhythm.

Outside the jarred window crickets
Rubbing friction, fire
Between their legs,

Wind dashes through the grass
Like a scythe in the fields,

And hauntingly a far-off swing
Swings.

I am drenched in black
Night, soaking up the hush.

I move my head and close my eyes.