He wanders the empty boulevard by memory
ignoring the faded street signs.
The moon overhead is just a sandy rock
shedding light so faint that the clouds barely blink.
Hardly a beacon, the Devil says to himself.
The last time the moon looked this dim was
the night that God had come to tell him that
He was leaving the earth and the men were going too.
They were taking the last of the trees with them and
maybe the wind and the folk gods too.
The Devil had just stood there in the street
watching the headlamps flicker like a sea of fireflies.
It isn’t the moon that spooks the Devil tonight
but the scene in the movie that he can’t shake away —
A collarless dog searches town for any sign
of its owner. In the distance two car lights
appear through the mist. The rain just
falls harder and the dog can’t be sure
if the dimming lights flash a signal to stay
or an invitation to chase.