Night Comes to the Planet

The traffic noise is a

baseline, the sound of humans devouring

themselves, absorbed in the unclouded

night—no particles survive, no

piston thrum, brake screech, declaration

of exhaust, no radio, horn blast, no

breaking glass or burned rubber

but no redemption either in

a sky that keeps rolling farther into darkness

as the last minivan departs its

assembly line and

accelerates, leaving town.