Variations on William J. Webbe’s “Twilight”

           1

Upon the same horizon: setting sun, rising moon;
A tangle of brush and ferns, grasses and shrubs;
Animals of the day about to be flown above by Night
That rises out of earth itself, not from the horizon behind
Where darkness flourishes thick as the cave below,
But from the Night itself that bats fly out from
And carry underneath them clinging to their wings.

At the base of the rock observe that an opening
Leads down and underneath the canyon wall
Only large enough for rabbits to sleep there—
But opening into larger passage that spirals
Down below earth to a cave where the bats
Will return after their night’s hunting to noisily grip
The cave’s ceiling as they enter their day of sleep.

They have come from close by in this dusk
Still very light, so their cave entrance is not far.
They begin hunting and eating while the owl
Menaces rabbits about to turn and leap back
Beneath earth into their den to escape
Sure death like that waiting in the bats’ wings
For every insect that enters their sonar path.

They will awaken in their den the next morning
In the upper passage of the cave as the bats
Return to their lower roost feasted and full.

           2

Setting sun and rising moon in the same sky.
Underneath bats fly out from their cave
Bringing Night with them in their unfolded wings.
The rabbits about to turn and leap to escape
Into their den flee into an upper entrance
That widens as it spirals down to join the cave
These bats will return to tomorrow morning,
Bellies full, their disappearance below the signal
That the sun shall rise again and a new day begin.

           3

Let the sun set
As the moon rises,
Seeming to cross
Each other’s path.

Already bats hunt
Their insect prey
Hungry from their day
Of mid-summer sleep.

Below their flight
A fellow hunter
Attempts to stun its prey
By its menacing stare.

But the rabbits
Will soon turn and jump
Into the entrance
Of the tunnel

That’s become their den,
Though further below
It becomes a cave
From which cool air flows

Up in the summer
And during winter
To keep them alive
Warm air rises.

           4

As if they have descended
From the sickle moon above them
Two bats unfold their talons
To impale their slower prey.

Sharp as the blade of the moon
Talons gleam on feet and wings.
Ignoring for now rabbits and owl
They search for their delight:

The least childen of darkness
They will swallow down whole
As rapidly as death
Swallows life down whole,

Their sharp teeth shining
In the sickle moon’s light.
Now the rabbits turn
To safely leap into the hole

That opens below their den
Into the cave below
Where the bats will return
After their hungry harvest.

           5

Night seems to rise out of the ground,
Darkness flowing upward as the sun sinks
And the moon rises, its shape a knife blade.
But the sky is not so dark as these shadows

Of darkness that rises from the rabbit’s den
They are about to leap into escape an owl.
Though sun and moon are in the same sky
Bats also hunt, hunger lifting their wings

Early this evening. Leaving the cave roof
Where they’ve slept all day to hunt for insects
They will soon flee from the other hunter
About to lose its prey when they leap away

Into the cave below this exposed ridge.
Beneath their den the rabbits feel air cooler
Than that in the hot summer outside
Where they’ve foraged all day and now

Will nest down to sleep as the bats above them
Flee from the owl to hide in the infinite night
That flows out from the cave below,
Their home and refuge where they will go

After this night of hungry subsistence
On the smaller wings of insect existence.

Steve Beleu
January 7, 2005