FRIDAY: The Bat 1 and The Bat 2

BY JULIE JOHNSON

Copyright is held by the author.

The Bat 1

sometimes I’ll wait
until the orange
glow wavers and the

twilight deepens past
cobalt to a purple thrum

to see if you’ll come out
and swim in circles in the

front lawn’s growing
globular shadows

I know you are feasting but
it looks like you are
dancing and

I’m your loyal
audience

appreciative of your dexterity
blessed to have our lives
fuse, albeit briefly

an orchestrated
artistic happenstance

in the growing chill
until the moment

you dart over my
rooftop and continue

living your life
alongside mine

The Bat 2

the shadows are my
favourite part

full, fast, feasting
your human curiosity

on the fringe is a faint
warning to be quicker

small, darting, fluid, fast
I could outrace you, maybe

I trust only your immobility

though I sense your scent
of gratitude and I in turn

appreciate you staying far
away from me as I circle
in space, a space

so rich, radiant and glittering
a thrum aligned with nourishment
my dangerous place of peace

***

Image of Julie Johnson

Julie Johnson has been writing creatively for decades, and has previously
published pieces here on CommuterLit, with poetry and short stories. She enjoys writing about nature and comedy, and has published two comedy novels about environmental activism, a short story series about zombies and several books of playful poems, all of which can be found here:
https://books2read.com/ap/8NkGZz/Julie-Johnson She is a retired educator, long time activist, lives in the Simcoe area of Ontario and is a guest contributor to the Simcoe County Greenbelt Coalition’s Substack, The Whale.