By the Street Light

a poem about bats

By the Street Light


Buddying moths, a million 
thirsty-throated mosquitoes
crowd the street lights.

Bats loose themselves
from their topsy-turvey day roost,
stir the limpid heat. 

Purple flowers
open their lightning-boom petals 
for the gibbous moon,
call the myriad mouths
of these night witches close.

They are my darling dreams,
membrane thin, sometimes ugly.

Pass the day in shadow, 
rise with the moon,
then, when feasting is done,
slip upside down, tarnished penny,
into the leather purse of their 
wings, the richest body. 

Black-winged, terrible,
spell-casting, all the while.
I watch the street-light
like a moth lost in dream-funk
just to see them dance.

Photo taken from a rooftop in Olib in Croatia where this poem was written.

I am alone, a week by myself, no kids, no husband, frightened by the pressure of what it means to have silence and space to create! I’ve not yet sunk into the place I need to be so I am reading my old work in the hope that it will help me find the magic within.

If you enjoyed this or any of my other work - and I hope very much that you do! please consider the wee restack or recommend, and if you have ponies available do leave me a tip! All amounts gratefully received big or small! don’t forget you are a magical wonderful being and I adore you for sharing this crazy ride with me!