Unfooted, 2 AM

The little three-legged cat
Sits under the hedge,
Blinks
Licks a good paw.
Here is the white eye, the knowing.
It floats over her head,
It also blinks.

In the dark
The ankle is a holy thing, unfooted,
The neat flesh and virgin bone
Only a firefly, a nightlight
That sends your own head home,

In this, no desert, but close,
Where we have learned to drink, pretending we don't know
The road winding away from home
Only leads back again
As a dog attends to a wound,
All lying brightly.