Interlude

by Lori Hershberger

And all that has passed before us: this day, this rain,
The sunshine and the green, green meadow,
Each flashing smile, each look of light
Is swallowed in this night of between;
Spaced between the sunset and the dawn—
Silent and dear and painful;
The memories of those times and the echoes of that laughter
Throb soundlessly beneath the symphony of crickets
And the boom of the frogs in the marsh.
While I wait with wistful ears for a voice
From beyond those thousand deep-set stars
To sing over me in the twilight of my heart.

Lori Hershberger is an absent-minded EFL teacher in the hills of Mae Hong Son province, Thailand, where she lives with her cat and wishes she had 9 lives too.

Photography by Kenneth Godoy