NIGHT SHIFTS

Phi Kappa Phi Forum, Spring 2004 by Staehle, George

The nighttime

highway whine

of eighteen-wheelers

brings back

midnight streetcars

screeching

out of monster faces

in my bedroom

when I was five.

Everywhere

people lurch awake

to the screams of distant engines -

some, like bombers,

so alarm-clock regular

that their threat wakes

before their sound;

some, like old war,

bombard over and over in dreams;

and some, like the trigger click

of a reluctant hallway light,

the last thing heard.

GEORGE STAEHEE

George Stachle was born in Columbus, Ohio, where he graduated from Ohio State University, followed by more than thirty years in U.S. government physics research at the University of California. he paints, hikes, plays various sports, and works on writing with his wife and daughter, who also write.