Settling and Unsettling

The evening unlaces the strings of the trees,
And sets the shoes of morning on the grass,
Unbuttons the coat-tails of the afternoon,
The hangers-on who took mid-day in stride.

The evening lays his head upon the arms
Of boughs and stretches swollen limbs
Across the town. Unsettled by the weight
That darkness brings, the dwellers sound

Their lights and beat on drums and pluck
On tuneful hums. But nothing keeps the stench
Of sleep, and one by one the people drop
And lie below their winking lights, like moths.