Autumn Streetlights, 12:00 AM in anticlimatic

The windows are dark on the small town autumn street in which you live, yet a strong breeze moves. Far away, somewhere now, somewhere also in a dream- city lights shine on someone living the time of their lives.

Set the mood with me here, though, in the dark quiet town of hills and maples and leaves cascading down crumbling sidewalks:

I used to imagine a candle in a small cozy sitting room lighting an old smiling woman as she yarns with her legs under a blanket- the glow on the wall, the smell of old cotton and wallpaper. I’d fling myself out the small window into the starry night and watch her rooftop get smaller and smaller below me, mixing with the other roof tops; the chimneys a-smoking.

I’d glance across the dark horizon, beyond forest and sea, at a distant glow far off in the dark. The heart of a city just out of view, like the smudge light- just barely visible- of the Andromeda Galaxy. An electric false sunrise beyond the curve of the earth.

Last updated October 16, 2023