Light Enduring

The moon shone fitfully behind the mass of drifting clouds that were like dark, silver-veined marble. The diffused light made a deep dusk which lasted all night, illuminating each object in a world barely shadowed. There was a thin fog which lent the air a gauzy quality, and each sound was as sharp as the pervasive chill. It was a perfect night for listening to footsteps. I walked up the street, where the strew of pine needles covers the pavement, and I could even hear the slight squish of the water my weight squeezed from them with each step. Not a breath stirred below the windblown clouds. For hours, the serenity prevailed. Then there was a sudden intrusion of brightness. My early-rising neighbor across the street had turned on her porch light. The spell of night was broken. There are moments when I feel like cursing Thomas Edison and all his progeny. I returned indoors and turned out all my lights, and sat in the dark silence until the first car of morning passed along the road to town.

For the Birds

A flock of white birds swirled and swooped above the trees, enlivening the improbably bright afternoon. The cracked voices of woodpeckers and harsh crow calls sounded on the chill air. Small brown birds pecked at the newly greened lawn, which is still damp from the rains. Blue jays stalked the fence and telephone wires. No more than a handful of clouds decorated the pale blue sky. In short, it was very Octobery today.

Since the removal of the two pines from the front yard up the block, a shaft of sky is visible directly above the neighboring house. The house now looks smaller than it did before. I have noticed this phenomenon before, when trees have been removed. It always seemed odd to me that the removal of trees which dwarf adjacent buildings would make the buildings look smaller, but now that I think of it, it makes sense. It is the increased mass of sky which shrinks the buildings. The trees actually make the buildings seem larger, by blotting out so much of the sky- holding its crushing visual weight off the low buildings, as it were. It's an interesting phenomenon.