Jessica Nelson North

From “At Night”

THE BLACK rain settles in our empty block.

The drunken street-lamps leer with sidelong eyes,

Dim and unholy.

Old newspapers, grown restless in the gutter,

With flap and flutter

Rise and subside and rise.

It is half-past-twelve-o’clock,

The night—goes—slowly.

I am awake again. I cannot sleep.

I light the lamp again, and draw the shutter.

I light the lamp against the feet that creep,

The sounds that mutter.

I draw the shutter against the lids that peep.

Something goes crouching at the dripping flank

Of the broken wall! Something in tatters slips

Down alleys dank!

Something from door to door before the rain

Dodges and whines! Something with twisting lips

Terribly smiles outside my shuttered pane!