The lamp overhanging
my neighbor’s back door
shutters on, flickers
like language.
A stutter. Morse code.
The incandescence
then swallows itself,
clicks off as the foyer light
warms the evening.
A mistake – they
clipped the wrong switch.
I still take it as a hello,
a good evening,
a happy spring,
an “isn’t the weather fine?”
I need it to be.
(2020)
