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4th April, 2025

Friday Poem – ‘The Darkening’ by Kathryn Bevis

Photo of a dark sky with a few stars shining behind the clouds.

Following her memorial celebration earlier this week, today’s Friday Poem is ‘The Darkening’ by Kathryn Bevis from her collection The Butterfly House.

The Darkening
It started with glow worms and phosphorescent fish, their lights blown out like candles on a cake.At matinees, footlights swallowed themselves entire so we only guessed poor Gloucester’s eyes were gouged and heard Lear shake
his fists against the storm. Momentum took. Bulbs began to organise, to unionise, downed tools across the globe. Lighthouse beams refused to stroke the sea to sleep. Whole tower blocks played dead, their pupils blown.
By teatime, even the blood-lit freckles of TV standby LEDs had mutinied. Dentists’ lamps sat down, sat in, called sick. We blamed the manufacturers.We blamed the government. Streetlamps picketed the roads on which they lived.
We knew we were screwed when matches joined the strike, flints declined to spark, magnifying glasses wouldn’t catch. Oil lamps, tapers, flambeaux took up arms.
Conspiracy theorists had their day at last.
Ghosted by our darkened screens tonight, we are undone.We pray for dawn’s red eye to open, watch as stars put out their fires one by one by one.