Street Lights in Fitchburg

just up the hill from market basket only one or two street lights are on the other day we heard a young man in the neighbors’ back yard loudly drunkenly announcing his candidacy for mayoral office shouting that he’d turn on every street light in fitchburg but tonight they’re mostly off again

a string of small bluish orbs shines suspended in the heart of darkness lining the pathway before a house whose owners bought a few solar-powered garden lights at the dollar store beside market basket

it must be dark now too in the library across the river i imagine the hmong-english dictionary and the vinyl copy of pete seeger’s circles and seasons sleeping as it were undisturbed

sleeping too are the dta office nearby the schools on south street the old closed planetarium out on john fitch highway

trains from boston arrive every hour or two but who is on them now here at the end of the line i wonder

we don’t need all the street lights on tonight as long as we’ve got nowhere to go