Nocturne wears an evening coat,
turns warehouses into palaces
and oil lamps into jewels.

Slips through the shipyard gates,
she curls beneath the masts
while they clink and drift asleep.

She dresses in the water now,
leaves velvet ink on the surface,
and an oarsman who traces it

beneath Battersea Bridge to a flame
that ascends and explodes.
Nocturne: blue and gold.