Nocturnal Mischief

With one last sweeping look around the room

The lights go out and hide the gaze

the sterness of which still pervades

in the thick but thinning gloom

 

The sudden closing of a door

and footsteps beating in retreat

Mark the start of our escape

 

The sheets fly off the beds like sails

and the ghostly soaking of a flashlight

Reveals with starkness our attire

Hardly fit for a night of sleep

 

Like cats we leave the bunks

And draw the window inch by inch

Letting in the heavy night

 

The window creaks

we cease to move

And will our ears

To hear beyond the silence

 

But no one comes

 

Now one by one

Jump out the window

Run for cover to the bushes

 

Wait and watch without a whisper

Trembling with excitement

Do your best to hold the laughter

Until it's sure we got away

 

The lights stay off

 

Now the bottle goes round in circles

Easing off the edge

And of we march into the night

The kings of nowhere land

 

Lift the wire with a stick

We'll get across like acrobats

Towards the air strip long abandoned

We'll bring it back to life tonight

 

Now the laughter swells up in the emptiness

and the lights cut through

The thickness of the night

The spark, the flame, drag, the sigh

It goes around and back again

The noose is loosened

and lets the mind escape

It curls and rises with the smoke

 

And now it starts

 

Look at them all dancing, runnning off into the night

Look at how the airstrip stretches on and fades from sight

Maybe it stretches on forever

Maybe this time we can fly away