Let There Be Light

Brewster Ghiselin

Some of the neighbors, aware
Of our needs in this town, of evil
That steals and stabs in the dark,
Are preparing a petition forever
To banish the night from this street.
And at little cost (for each,
Per month, a dollar or two),
Price of the current required
When the Company selling the current
Has lifted the vigilant globes
To guard us, garden and house, .
And street, secure as a park
Where the children can play without fear
As late as they please, while we watch
(Without fear) events of the world
On TV, till the children tire
(As we in the houses have tired)
Of their world and come in to share
In the dusk of the comforting screen
The ads and the fun and the scare
That nobody need believe.
For night is far back in the hollows
Of mountains, far off at Four Corners
Hovering over the stacks
That are changing dark into day
For us here, in the coastal cities,
And over the countryside:
Let there be light-except
Where the Navajos' eagle noon
Is dimmed as with midges, to dusk
Of the wings of our towering night
That will come in its time to us.