The Night Falls,
a Prose Poem
by
Radiance Angelina Petro

This morning the cows were already waiting for me at the fence. “Good morning!” I said. They skipped the pleasantries and got right to it. “We have strange news Radiance. Did you know that the night really falls? We haven’t figured out from where yet, but it falls alright. It’s like some sort of veil that had been held up by invisible strings all day that the sun snipped before she sank behind the hills. It slowly drifted down and disappeared the corn field, the tractor, and the farmer’s house. It even covered the lights in the windows.” They chewed their mouthfuls of clover waiting to see my reaction. I looked up at the sky and said: “That is strange. I dreamt last night that I wasn’t ready to teach today.” “What did you do?” they asked. “I woke up in a panic, got up to pee, then went back to bed.” “What happened to the dream? they asked.” “I’m not sure,” I said, “but maybe it turned into a veil and was lifted into the sky when I got up this morning.” The cows chewed for a moment and we all stood in silence until they said: “Strange.”