Nightfall in the Forest by John Grey

Trees, gun-metal dark,

creak and moan.

Mice scurry through the underbrush.

There’s a hoot owl in their heaven

and it promises to wreak hell.

 

All is unhinged when the sun goes down.

Long-held opinions dissipate in shadow.

There’s no more bird song.

Air fills with bat squeak instead.

Hunger pushes some creatures into the open.

Predators are unharnessed somewhere above.

They peer down from upper branches

with immaculate eyes.

 

One step and immediately there is an echo.

A fox hears.

A coyote moves in on every sound.

Everything

that’s not huge and terrifying

is tiny and afraid.

About the Poet:

John Grey is an Australian poet, US resident, recently published in New World Writing, North Dakota Quarterly and Lost Pilots. Latest books, ”Between Two Fires”, “Covert” and  “Memory Outside The Head” are available through Amazon. Work upcoming in California Quarterly, Seventh Quarry, La Presa and Doubly Mad.