that pleasant limbo

Waterfall blinds bring the night down slowly,
gently steering the sun away, in no hurry.
The man in the moon pins thumbtack stars to a velvet sky,
one
by
one,
until they rain down like icing sugar,
all at once, almost impatiently-
waiting until the sun reappears,
when the stars on my roof will melt and dissolve.

Bedroom lights flicker off like dominoes
in the sleeping streets.
The dogs of night chase the extinguished lights
across the town, the little record-scratch sound
of their paws trotting on cobblestone pavements
echoing through windows,
reaching the ears of dozing children smiling themselves to sleep,
lost in that pleasant limbo between consciousness and dreams.