After Midnight

that spill shadows in the forest at night?

Where have the tremors in the earth gone

that were quaked by an old giant turning?

Where have the demons gone that cut

eerie echoes through old mansions?

Where have the stone castles gone that make endless caves

and mountains envy?

Where have the steel zeppelins gone that

melt clouds to ash?

Where have the gnomes gone that use

to drag their yellow claws along the hardwood floors at night?

Where have the twilight highways gone with no

start or end?

Where have the endless cities gone that melt

skin to power lights?

Where have the emerald dragons gone that raze

the sky and build a fiery stem towards heaven?

And where have the children gone?

My children,

that play in the rain, and sneak dark stories

with flashlights, beneath blankets

after midnight.