The Luminous Night

[rejectomorph]

The moon has passed obscure, exposed for but a few seconds now and then, the cloud cover holding firm as a gray dome to make the night a pantheon vast as the dripping forest. The rain has ceased. By the pale moonlight scattered through the translucent, starless sky, I see the strew of yellow leaves brocading the dark lawn, the filigree of newly-bared branches, the mere asphalt now like the sheen of a black lake reflecting both sky and the blurred shapes of the surrounding trees. I can make out each familiar form along the street. Were I a stranger here, I might be puzzled by these sights, but memory fills the gaps and reveals the details hidden in the dimness.

The quivering pines continue to hum with the persistent wind. Their sound is like the light; countless vibrations dispersed through the air, so that they are everywhere and nowhere, enveloping me as my thoughts reach out to envelop the forest, the freshened streams that rush glimmering seaward, the dew-sprinkled meadows scanned by bright-eyed grazing deer, the sleeping birds huddled in warm nests, the burgeoning fungi adding their dank scent to the odor emitted by fallen trees returning to the soil. I envision it all as the night reveals it with this pervasive glow of cloud-powdered moonlight.

Comments

[jaarronn.livejournal.com]

J, you are a spell-binder! This is really special. Thanks.

[rejectomorph]

Thanks. I never know what's going to come out when I sit down to write, which is why I try to write something every day. Sometimes it works out well.