Witching Hour

Midnight leaves no cool shadow
just a steadfast face of darkened threads
clawed through with star-shaped punctures

Crickets sing percussion songs
among sweet grass and clover buds
Owls ask who, who, who, is out there
touching paws within the wood-rush
quiet enough to hear the breath
of the tiny meadow vole?

The black cat of midnight
twitches a bewitching tail
but soon enough will turn
it’s glowing yellow eyes
to conjure coming dawn

Image created by AI

The Day Twenty-seven prompt is to write an “American sonnet.” What’s that? Well, it’s like a regular sonnet but . . . fewer rules? Like a traditional Spencerian or Shakespearean sonnet, an American sonnet is shortish (generally 14 lines, but not necessarily!), discursive, and tends to end with a bang, but there’s no need to have a rhyme scheme or even a specific meter.