as the world exhales
and fiery fingers weave a black blanket across the sky
and razor-sharp rays and hazel gazes,
and blinding words and prismatic faces,
are at last concealed,

the silence draws me out
tugging hand over hand on my tattered heartstrings
it drags me deep into the openness
submerging me in the street’s shadows
turning me to an ethereal barefooted beast
existing only in wispy half-glimpses by lamppost light

i press play

a cosmic song bursts out of cool air
i am blasted by a brilliant chord of starlight that tears apart steel fears like daisy petals,
the fragments floating away on a moonlit melody
a pounding rhythm shreds the ground until it crumples away and i am floating,
suspended by cricket chirps and constellations
cradled in an infinite crescendo
the heartbeat of the supernova shakes the sky
striking trees with sonic lightning
making their branches spring, trembling, for the stars

and then the song starts to fade
the sky sets me down like a leaf onto a shining pond
as i reunite with the earth, the pavement feels solid for the first time
the last dwindling notes swirl in through my skin,
settling like smoke in my soul’s empty spaces

as deer dash across the parched field,
soaring like no wistful watcher can contain them,
i inhale the majesty around me
and realize i am finally free