This poem for Paul Brookes’ challenge, inspired by the paintings Can I go now? by Marcel Herms and Darkness beckons by Terry Chipp, is, I hope not premonitory.

Darkness beckons

because the dream is never enough,
because the road runs bright and broad,
because she thought the golden city was for her,

and although she picks up trinkets on the way,
the road ends always in a golden ditch,
and all she sees is a field of magpies.

Sometimes she thinks the darkness
that stretches out its empty hands full
of no promises offers more than this.

We forget, if we ever knew, that
caged birds sing to sooth their broken hearts,
not ours.