Late to Vespers by Amberly Howe

Late to Vespers

by Amberly Howe

Behind them all

it's a special sound -- I call it the sabbath

sound

fancy shoes on sidewalks-- tile, concrete or

asphalt

like so many reindeer on their way

to a favorite feeling ground

behind them all

I feel like an eskine in furs rounding them

into the fold

I stand in the back while they settle (to chew

their cud?)

two thousand heads - reflections of the high

glass windows

reds and golds, brown, black, bald, blonde

shiny and sleek, coiled, curled, coifed, combed

short on gray, easy on white--a different house

they're all moving -- can't sit still, nodding

tipping, turning, leaning, flinging back

reflections

of the high glass windows of this field