Let There Be Light

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.