<html aria-label="message body"><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div dir="auto" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 22px;">3 a.m. </div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 22px;"><b> </b></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 22px;">The witching hour.</div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 22px;"><i> </i></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 22px;">Suddenly awake, sweating, </div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 22px;">to the wider horrors of the world,</div><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 22px;"> </p><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 22px;">gaping tears in the gauze </div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 22px;">I draw around myself </div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 22px;">to the shiver of a crumbling republic. <span style="color: rgb(0, 112, 192);"></span></div><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 22px;"> </p><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 22px;">Close fears, too, press tight:</div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 22px;">a pang in the back, an elbow’s chirp, </div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 22px;">figments spinning into tangles of worry,<span style="color: red;"></span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 22px;">the undone I might never do. </div><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 22px;"><span style="color: red;"> </span></p><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 22px;">Regrets without remedy</div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 22px;">ivy my chest<span style="color: rgb(238, 0, 0);">: </span>lost chances, </div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 22px;">blunders in love, words unsaid, </div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 22px;">wrong turns, friends lost </div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 22px;">to death, drift, disaffection. </div><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 22px;"> </p><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 22px;">Even Brubeck and Monk fall short, </div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 22px;">and the old cat who purrs on my ribs, </div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 22px;">until I inhale, exhale, recall </div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 22px;">the moon’s pale smiles, </div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 22px;">duets of great horned owls, </div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 22px;">and the voice, the gentle voice:</div><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 22px;"> </p><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 22px;">“You are not alone. You are never alone.”</div><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 22px;"> </p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 22px;"> <span style="color: rgb(26, 26, 26);"> </span></p><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 22px;"><span style="color: rgb(26, 26, 26);"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>- Paul DeMarco</span></div></div></body></html>