Mark Dawson has lived in Ward 6 on Capitol Hill since 2000. A Tennessee native, he holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of Alabama, where he was editor of Black Warrior Review. He has published poems in Willow Springs, Nimrod, Colorado Review, North American Review, Antioch Review, Poet & Critic and elsewhere.
“10 P.M.” first appeared in One, an online journal. Dawson’s “clover Milky Way” can sometimes be seen in the grassy island where North Carolina Avenue meets First Street SE.
10 P.M.
It’s 10 P.M. again. I really love this hour.
To bed? No! I’m too awake for that.
But yes ‒ we are in double digits now.
Right now is the last moment to embark
on some original plan and fold it,
neatly done, before midnight, when
the earth’s curvature divides my thoughts
into half-moons. But glorious 10 P.M.!
Only those of us with special permission
venture out of doors. A woman up the hill
smokes the day’s last cigarette, standing
still at the apex of her tall streetlight
shadow, a heroic sentinel. And me?
I walk to carry trash to a street basket.
I turn and see that clover has formed
a river in green grass. I have to think of
myself thinking up a clever thought
before I wonder if a buried sewage-line
has broken. I do not, do not, want to greet
the happy couple approaching as smoothly
as skaters on ice. It’s 10 P.M.! And under
its waning spell, I make my way back
across the grassy expanse to the curb,
and turn to gaze at the clover Milky Way….
Southwest resident Sandra Beasley is the curator of “Poetic Hill” and the author of four poetry collections. If you live in DC and are interested in being featured, you can reach her at sandrabeasley@earthlink.net for questions and submissions (1-5 poems).
