OldTroubador's blog post - The Night Sounds are Muted - repost

This is one I wrote years ago. I would sit on the front porch in the evening with a cup of coffee and a notebook. And if the Muse was with me, I would have something to write. This is one of my favorites, I am glad I was able to save this one (yeah, the same disc that was corrupted years ago).

The night sounds are muted
Reflecting the light of town
White and orange are the lowering clouds
Clouds bringing the promise of rain
Rain which, a few years ago, was welcome
And a salvation
But now seems a curse
Shall we see the sun again?

The night sounds are muted
The quiet rent by a horn the
Warning blast of a train announcing
To those of us still awake its presence
Its arrival at each crossroad
The thrumming of the diesels growing louder
And louder still as throttle is added
A solo song sung by pistons, the sound
Of steel wheel on steel rail singing back up

The night sounds are muted
The night time is dark
Light spills out of windows pointing
The way to trouble? Illness? Loneliness?
What’s happening around the lights behind the curtains?
Here a mother nurses a sick child, there
A couple sits across from each other
In tired sullenness – the fight gone, but the pain lingering
Down the street, a family talks long into the night
A happy reunion

The night sounds are muted
Parakeets and finches fussing each other
Over some imagined slight
The bubbler and the pump gurgling burbling in
The fish tank. The noise is background music to the silent movie which is the life of these fish
Silently mouthing their lines
The only other sound is the pencil scratching
This paper, laying down these simple words

The night sounds are muted.