Daylight Savings Time

Starting in late February my mother

would cut the weather page

out of the newspaper

and put it on the refrigerator

as a sign of hope: each day

a minute or two more light.

But it’s autumn now.

This week the time changed,

and it’s dark by six.

Think of it as temporary, I tell myself:

an alcove or loft, place

for waiting out of harm’s way.

I take my daughter to dinner.

As we sit behind the plate glass

of Shoney’s, the parking lot grows

appalling at the farthest edges.

“Daylight Savings Time” first appeared in Shade, Issue One.