39/365: evening gods (published in Vine Leaves)

there are evenings
     when I look out across the stockade fences
     dissecting my subdivision's backyards and
the moon meets the street lamps
     and the ambient glow of the city
     not so far away
that I can almost transform
      contractor grade siding
      into white stucco walls

and you will have to forgive me, my friend
     for saying that I am in Greece
     and not some tract housing
     no one will want to remember in 50 years,
     let alone a millennium or two.

pass me the ouzo,
the gods are about tonight -
     do you not see Hermes slouching there
     by the mailboxes?
     (he's the one with the skate board).
     the one with the Mad Dog 20/20 -
     that's Dionysus, of course.

if you can't see them just yet,
sit and wait awhile -
    they aren't going anywhere

unlike us.