Night Hawks | Teen Ink

Night Hawks

March 18, 2009
By Michelle Surka GOLD, Hopkinton, Massachusetts
Michelle Surka GOLD, Hopkinton, Massachusetts
10 articles 0 photos 2 comments

Sucking in the smoke
Right ventricle, left atrium
Inhale.
She chips at her fingernails,
Gaudy red, what a joke.
He's there next to her
But she knows that shady stranger better, maybe.
They both wear hats and suits and serious looks
They could be brothers, or the same.
The lights glare yellowy
Jaundiced and poisoned
Like their livers that fail
After every night.
During the day, the owner knows children
And root beer floats and the day's special,
But in the dark he stares at the floor,
Regretting the profit of 24-hours-a-day,
Ignoring silver flasks emptying into coffee mugs.

The author's comments:
Based on "Night Hawks" by Edward Hopper. It's a fantastic, beautiful, haunting painting and I'm going to adamantly recommend it to anyone who has looked around a public place and still felt so terribly alone.

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