Instructions on Being Alone After Dark
       

In the dark, you are no raven,
no crow with heavy plumage,
no power of flight when lights
turn on their haloes, buzz

of street lamps a tepid music,
sidewalks that in daytime
shone innocent and smooth
now rise up to grab your ankles

trip your confident stride.
So you must step wisely,
carefully, saving the strut
for the sunshine, making

yourself small in the shadows,
light of your flashlight
guiding you past houses
that in evening obscurity

look like eager monsters—
doors unwelcoming, windows
afire with warmth you can't claim.
Hope that passing cars

hold no assassins, that
passing strangers pass you
without desire of injury,
that roadside ditches stay

uncomplicated, limbless.
Hope that barking dogs
stay chained, ghosts content
in ancient dusty attics.

It's never too late to reconsider:
guns, mace, self-defense classes,
the need to be a woman alone
walking somewhere the world

says she shouldn't, destinations
worth my time and days, my life.

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Copyright © 2020 Allison Joseph All rights reserved
from Smart Pretender
FinishingLine Press
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission