The apartment seems smaller now
as you pace in this uncertain light.
You are not used to this shade of sun.
Usually
you are somewhere else
at this time of day
but the season has ended, apparently,
prematurely
and the apartment
just needs to be paced.

The cat wonders
why you are circling the perimeter
so steadily.
Perhaps you should go out.
You are always out at this hour.
You always have something to do
somewhere to go.
This change of pace is
refreshing
as you find yourself back in the living room
for the eighteenth time
in recent memory.

Dusting could be done perhaps.
Or a bit of record organizing.
Maybe looking up old friends
and inviting them over
but they’ve all got their patterns and activities
that must be so.

Are those children outside?
Have they always been there at this hour?
How had you never known?
This is a strange season now
with very uncertain light.
Perhaps you should go out.
You just wish you knew where there was
still to go.