One of
My Favorite Words
by Steve Tomasko
Would you be angry
if I called you crepuscular?
Such an earthy word—my deer,
my little mosquito—
so furtive and muscular.
Most active in the middling
between times, the dreamy
light of dawn and dusk
is what it means, my darling
nighthawk, my sweet platypus.
To parse it further,
my one and only bunny,
I can name creatures active
in the evening—vespertine.
A hush of a word, don’t you agree,
my firefly? My little brown bat?
Then there are those who
prefer the morning hours.
Let’s call them matinal,
my fuzzy wuzzy bumblebee,
from Mātūta, Roman goddess
of the dawn. Early risers, they—
but even earlier to bed.
It doesn’t come up easy
in conversation, so
I hope you’ll excuse me,
my short-eared owl,
if I say you are the most,
the cream,
you are the twilight icing
on my crepuscular cake.
