Eyes Are Lit Up

By : Robert P. Tristram Coffin

Someone whom no man can see

is lighting candles in the tree.

Star by star, on every bough

There is a taper burning now.

Quietly, the forest through,

Eyes are lit up, two by two.

The silky moles and velvet mice

Have eyes as sharp as cracks in ice.

Dark-lanterns of the owls begin

To burn like emeralds and sin.

The raccoon built of hidden wire

Prowls by the glow of his brain-fire.

Herons stand as still as years

And see the fish swim through their tears.

All the creatures of the night

Are busy being their own light.