Every morning

I open the front window

about eight inches

regardless of the weather.

            My cats know the routine

            and they sniff and look

            and maybe wonder “what’s out there”

            because they’ve always lived indoors.

I like the freshness

that comes into the house

replacing the stale night air

with the morning’s newness.

            But today I wondered

            what “stale night air?”

            and why would it exist

            after just a few hours

            of the sleeping stillness in my home?

Then a voice 

unheard by others said,

“Well, we gather here at night

and need to be let out in the morning, so,

thank you.”

            I realized

            the longer I stood at the open window

            the air in my home felt lighter

            less, well, less cluttered.

Djinns? Angels? Ghosts?

            Who are these nightly visitors?

            Why my home?

            And what do they do?

“You’re the door, the portal,

the safe place we can move

in and out 

of different worlds,”

said that voice.

            “We are a little bit

            of everything you’ve guessed.

            No baddies though.

            Word’s out you don’t allow that.”

“That’s good to know,” I said.

Looking down at my cats, I asked, “

You guys know about this?”

No answer, 

but I knew they did.

I felt like a conspirator

hmmm, that sounds nefarious.

An enabler?

Worse.

            The curtain!

            I’ll be the curtain

            through which these good spirits can safely travel

            back and forth on their busy journeys

            doing what I’m not exactly sure.

I stood at the open window a while longer

knowing they’d all left the house for today.

I closed the window.

            I’ll open it again tomorrow.