The kitchen was dark and cold,
electricity gone again,
the price I have to pay for living far from a town,
ought to live in suburbia with streetlights
that chase antisocial darkness under bushes
and at the bottom of the garden
where crawly things thrives in a compost heap.
Opened a drawer to find candlelight
I needed to find the oil lamp
and was bitten by a knife,
then I remembered that I had left it on the top shelf
to better remember!
Froze, heard a knock on the door
and things that slithered on the floor,
I wasn’t going to answer that knock
and waited for another one.
The pale moon came to my rescue
gave me a secret kiss of comfort
the room was clear
except for a rat that kept making love to my left big toe,
embarrassed scuttled away
when its amorous advances wasn’t appreciated.
When I lit the oil lamp
the electricity came back on,
put the lamp on the top shelf
to better remember next time.
Wondered what would happen
if electricity disappeared altogether
and night really would be night again,
not like now
where I can sit in a midnight park
and read the evening paper.