Safeguard

All the sky was filled with frost-blue light
from the staring moon
where the far cold stars were drowned.
and through the luminous chill mists of night,
stark branches pierced the air
in brittle beauty.

Around the slumbering hills
winking yellow lights shone out
and lit the late hour with their friendly glow.
The sleeping city held me close, secure
against the limitless and hostile upper air
where in the cold eternal light
great worlds grew faint and vanished.

-a.