For some reason, WP wants to make the first photos huge and the ones I most want you to see are tiny.  If you click on the first photo  below, it will make the smaller ones larger as well. Also, please note that an explanatory poem follows the photos. Click on the X, upper left of the last photo, to see the poem.

Midnight Marketplace

The server’s hands pour liquid flame,
as though its heat he seeks to tame.
Poured in a river from great height,
a brilliant blue pulses with light
and falls steaming into a cup
for late night diners to drink it up.

Then when the restaurant lights go out,
the cats emerge to run about
through the darkened market aisles
to stalk their prey and sport their wiles—
grooming beneath swaying lights,
arching backs and staging fights.

This world of cats comes out at night—
that time when magic is at its height.
They swarm about and ebb and flow,
everywhere we come and go,
as though by moving through it, they
bring power to a feral day.

The hand that reaches to connect
is not rewarded. It’s suspect.
For as they walk their empty aisles,
over midnight-cooled tiles,
already in our nodding heads
are thoughts of home and welcoming beds.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/photo-challenges/magic/