Nightwind

Walking through the nightwind
long and cold and heavy and dark
invisible river
flowing over me
pushing between the houses
small and unlit
beneath a bottomless starless sky
no sound but this steady exhalation
unvarying, unliving
quietly, slowly robbing me of warmth
stealing through these endless empty streets
quiet, but in this total silence
loud as a funeral wail
unseen, but large as the sky
devoid of smells, of noise,
of any sign of life,
this dying breath of Earth.