The Song
10-Aug-2008
Via Three Word Wednesday

The rumble of the generator,
unnoticed for its ubiquity,
suddenly ceased, leaving a palpable
silence, my ears full of cattails and kapok,
the pitch well of the night suddenly
towering above me, my hands invisible
before my face.

And as my stunned eyes, long dazzled
by the shriek of the city,
recovered, a miracle
burst forth overhead.
A million, trillion stars,
unnoticed in the fluorescent cacophony,
turned the sky into a spilled puddle of milk,
understanding for the first time
the Via Lactea – the Milky Way –
unseen by most of us in this over-enlightened age.

Down by the river
the bullfrog adjusts his harmony
to compensate for the missing generator,
and the song goes on.