The Truth About Tigers

If you are lucky enough
to live near a 24-hour grocery store
and haven’t yet wandered in at 3 a.m.,
I warmly invite you to join us
one quiet night.

Prime parking spots ripe for the taking,
aisles wide and open as parade grounds,
freshly stocked shelves encouraging
a leisurely reading of labels,
checkout lines empty
as forgotten dreams.

Among the sparse pre-dawn crowd,
polite, conspiratorial nods are exchanged,
binding us as silent members
of a secret moonlight society
of insomniacs
and solitude-seekers.