The Coming of Night

--Linda Pastan

When ambition, like a faulty

pilot light, sputters

and goes out and the abstract

spark of hunger with it; 

when even those whose fiery

eccentricities seemed

inextinguishable have faded into

darkness or been snuffed out,

we are left with the peace

of evensong, with night

coming on in the midst

of what yesterday

was simply afternoon.

All the clocks are changed now.

It is almost time to feel our way

out of the world.