Nightfall

As winter evening fell
           Venus bright in the sky
above Doughty street
           where Dickens once lived
the view he would have seen
           from the upper floor
sharp lines of the opposite roofs
           behind which
the tops of trees / amputees
           pruned back to stumps

So time has shaped
           and shapes us
energy into light
           into growth
into days
           time and time again
beside the flowing waters
           flecks and wafers of time
hair bleached by the sun
           our bodies etched
with history
           bones turned to stone

John Lyons