We started the bonfires
When the sun went down
We told stories, earth-crop-stories, circled ’round the flames
Even though we knew about each other’s days
Turned our backs to the night
But peered across, over shoulders
Watching each the other ’til the sun came up.

In the winter we sang
To drown out the wind
In the summer we swam
To keep our eyes from the sky
Stars are seductive because they’re safe harbour
Give them names: give them shapes
Or they’ll sing you away.

Night smells: it smells like wild
and green, and newborn dew hatching
and hooves on grass.
Night smells like the fancies and flutters of trees
We clogged noses with woodsmoke
We stopped ears with words.
Still they charmed away our young ones, never seen again.
Some say they left dancing
I don’t know if that’s true.

So sleep was a blessing:
It plugged up the ears,
The eyes with dreaming; it shouted down the stars
It stymied the predators who hunt the beats of your heart
And the night was not frightening, but for the smell
Of newborn dew hatching that lingered in your nose
So soft and feather-gentle it made one weep.

Let your head grow heavy;
Just close your eyes.
Don’t look, and don’t dare breathe.