Lee Passarella

Nighthawks
An Abbreviated Sonnet Cycle

1

Night's come again, un-
biased comforter.
As always, bright sun's
ardent follower.
It beds down willing
folk whose long day's tough.
Though wheeling-dealing
sorts, who tend to slough
off sleep along with
last year's thousand-dollar
suits, act as if
raveled sleeves should call for
Goodwill write-offs,
not for tailors' costs.

2

And then, the starved ones,
looking but to reap
their nightly bread from
joints where they don't sweep
till morning's new pace
quickens streets. Where stragglers
lisp, "S'go my plaishe.
C'mon!" While last, the hagglers—
scared sick—dicker
with the night, and plead
those black hours thicker
than a shroud might fade
away. From whence gray
dawn comes—DOA.

Lee Passarella is a founding member and senior literary editor of Atlanta Review and editor-in-chief of FutureCycle Poetry. His poetry has appeared in Chelsea, Cream City Review, Louisville Review, Antietam Review, The Formalist, Cortland Review, and many other periodicals. Passarella's long narrative poem based on the American Civil War, was published by White Mane Books in 2002. In addition, he has published two other books of poetry: The Geometry of Loneliness (David Roberts Books) and Sight-Reading Schumann (Pudding House Publications).

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