--- T H O M A S   D E V A N E Y

Was that a bear? The darker part 
	of the dark, in the trees.   
Should we go back, keep going? 
Out of the corner of the eye, 
	or the eye itself?   
It wasn't the "Bears in the Trashcans" 
	of the evening news;  
nor the darkly handsome one upright and wet, 
fishing on Public Television, as far as we can tell. 
Black dot vanishing to the black underfur. 
The retina is alive to its widest sphere. 
How we do and don't chase 
	the night's black thunder. 
In the sharp and grassy swiftness, 
the upper reaches of the canopy whoosh
as nighttime particles swarm in a sudden light,
and other luminous reflectors dot and dart 
on the road up ahead.