"A different time" - by Rustum Kozain

We invert time
after love fallasleep as the muezzin calls
the diligent to daybreak prayers.
Night fails. Dawn comes
in strides.Guinea-fowl skirl and caw
into another day
from which we turn.
A curtain billows over us,
like a chimney vents
sweat and our sighs to the world.
Wind, candid with light rain,
falters onto our skins.
Then someone’s 5 p.m.
angle-grinder dredges up our morning.
We straddle time, the bed.
Like starfish, beached
in the sulphur of sunset
you said.