Parents lie awake
in late darkness
thinking of
the previous day,

afraid
for their children, afraid
of their children. 

The children
are all asleep.

Perhaps
they’re also all
lucid dreamers,
so in control
of their fantasies
that they may as well
be real.

If these children’s dreams
do become real?  Well,
if that happens…well,

if dawn is coming,
if dawn ever comes again,
if all are wrong and it comes again,

if after this night
something recognizable as dawn
can possibly still be coming,

no one in this town
is likely to recognize it.

Certainly,
no one
can feel it yet.