the four am phone call

it’s four hours since stumbling shocked and sockless
nightdress tucked into jeans
head aching with fear and sleep

four hours less nine minutes since seeing flashing blue
and sprinting up your driveway
like it’s a scripted movie

hunched on the veranda with dew seeping at my cuffs
an open window between us
lets out the dark

in the pre-dawn dim of day I kept looking for signs
in the design of the stars
in the dissolving weight of sky