Narrated by Juleigh Howard-Hobson
Every sunset brings the promise of a new dawn.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson
Thorn bearing branches, curled like cast iron,
Reach up into a brilliant sunset. Sky
Light falls behind the forest like a flame
Thrown down a well. High clouds turn scarlet, turn
Magenta, turn pink, then fade and die
As all the world grows shadow-black. The same
Bright stars we couldn’t see before become
Points of light that do not decrease the dark
Though they shine through branches and spend the night
Contending with the moon. Shade passes from
The forest to the heavens, and then arcs
From the heavens back to earth. No twilight
Marks the setting of the night. The dawn breaks
Swiftly and brings the sun. The forest wakes.
BIO: Juleigh Howard-Hobson’s poetry has appeared in Liquid Imagination, Silver Blade, Illumen, Enchanted Conversation, Polu Texni, Star*Line, 2018 Rhysling Award Anthology (Science Fiction Poetry Association), Weaving the Terrain (Dos Gatos), Mandragora (Scarlett Imprint) and many other places. She lives in the rural neverlands of the Pacific Northwest where the Night Forests go on for miles.