collegienstrasse had changed

collegienstrasse had changed
rapidly from a dusk shaded
cobblestone garden from where
many youthful voices had climbed like vines
and the youthful laughter of many had bloomed

rapidly changed
to a street fallowed for the night where
the students who were
the seeds from where all those voices
and all that laughter had sprouted

the students had gone home
and the avenue had become
a bared road through a shadow

a shadow that
had at first lengthened
first darkened into schlossstrasse

then lengthened and darkened out
of the beggar square that all night
waited for bread and for brew

lengthened darkened
past the windows of linen and parchment
oiled and dim lit extinguished

past the shuttering of houses

past the university
and the students in the dormitories who’d
pulled the blankets to their chins

past this old monastery
and the professors who lived here then
and then wrote midnight lectures
here by candlelight

as the shadow lengthened
darkened into nightfall at the eastern wall

the one who’d drawn
the watch that night came
closed the eastbound road out
locked the elster gate and began
to walk his rounds
#DramaticPoetry #EarlyModernWittenberg #HistoricalFiction #HoratioDialogue #Imagery #literary #literature #Poetry #SerialPoetry #SpokenWord #Sunset #writing