(I keep returning to the same idea,
but then I think it is how day
follows day and so praise the night.
But does saying it over
and over make it real?
If it’s the heart that speaks?)
O Lovely Night! O Lovely Day!
for Michaela, again
It’s the running way
That gives the night its claw.
Turning on the lights
Just gives it a place to hide.
You’ll have to set yourself
On fire to burn it out.
Lovers seek the darkness
As if it were the light.
Others shake
And pray.
What can we do
But wrap the night
In song, the heart
Beating one two
One two
One two
Until the other comes:
O lovely night,
O lovely day?