The night awaits

Midnight stitched the sky in velvet hush,
and we, adrift on backroad veins,
became the hush,
all murmurs, all music, all soft rebellion.

No destination,
just the ache of stars overhead
and your laughter lighting up
the hollows of my chest.
Each mile a secret.
Each turn a vow unspoken.

Gas station lights blinked like sleepy lighthouses,and we,
two souls with nowhere to be,
found home
in the spill of words,
in hands brushing close
but not too close.

You told stories that curled in the dark
like smoke from a candle not ready to die.
I listened like the moon was listening too,
and in that moment
everything was true.

By dawn,
the sky unzipped its gold,
and though our eyes were rimmed with sleepless haze,
my body hummed with something more than rest,
the warmth of being known,
the thrill of being seen
beneath the quiet mask of night.

So let the world keep its clocks,
its calendars and closing hours,
we've found something timeless
in the hush between headlights,
and I know,
wherever we go next,
the night will wait for us.

By Jo K.