♫♫♫

flashes flitting through the sky. as a crowd to the flash of paparazzi i hasten to my window. lights out, shut the computer. possessed by sheer awe, by the fierce elegance of these millisecond wonders. for minutes i stare, my lips apart like a broken hinge, involuntarily gasping, oooh-ing, wow-ing.

so is the magic of a stormy night. the otherwise invisible made seen, no longer able to hide in the dark. trees cast their five-o-clock shadows on the 10-o-clock ground. daffodils are baffled by the flickering lights. should they turn inward or out? the clouds break the rules of hide-and-seek – angrily they clash and clamor. arms of frightful ions reach for the nearest staircase, zig-zagging downward to reveal the shrouded players. in the midst of such atmospheric ire, everything prays, some atheistically, and some with the very faith that god's hands themselves are prematurely plucking them up

and they don't want to go