San Gabriel Valley Poetry Quarterly

Beverly M. Collins
ALL IN A DAY

Morning; full of hope, peeked yellow eyelashes over

the hills and stretched her long fingers of light. This
jarred the Marine layer to run and catch a bus.
 
As Marine layer ran, he called over one shoulder to
Midday who marched in, blew his hot breath on the
landscape, stomped in circles until he lost footing and
 
rolled, clumsy into Afternoon, knocked Afternoon
from her nap on the hammock. So, Afternoon jumped up
and decided to go for a long; paused only once to
glaze at a group of Rabbits who played in a field.
 
Eventually, Afternoon jumped tired legs over
Evening who had crawled in on hands and knees
and tried to get a drink from a broken water fountain.
 
Later, Evening wrapped herself in a colorful jacket and
turned on her side with her back to Nighttime. This
caused Nighttime to feel sad, push in heavy clouds.
 
Their tears tapped lightly at windows as Nighttime laid flat
on his back and prayed for the hope of morning.