Out for a Late Night Walk

Missing person flyers
taped to the telephone poles
rattle one by one
as a cold breeze goes down the line
with whispers filling our ears.
One flyer breaks off
and is carried upward
on the wind
and disappears over
a tenement rooftop
like Elijah come back
to carry away some lost soul
off to a better place.
Then the inner city moon
comes out of the clouds
with a face that shines
on each and every one of us
the promise of a new morning
already on its way.

William Cullen, Jr.