Night: from the 16th floor of my hotel

A lone car pushes its headlights
through the half-darkness below.
Streetlights scatter across the hill,
a tired imitation of the silent stars,
shining fiercely beneath thick blankets
of cloud. I turn down my bed, draw a bath.

Lights wash the night air
with the colorless pale of sleep.
The parking-lot tarmac shines
with puddles of rain-slicked streetlight.

(Written after a day of teaching & travel, on the eve of the National Writing Project 2006 conference in Nashville, TN)