Sit and be a shadow

*Repost from Moab, UT*

Friday night I walked down the stairs to have a smoke. I could smell the pool, hear the pool equipment behind the door legibly labeled “Pool Equipment” (Important note…it was not a meat grinder like I first thought). The last flight down I reached into my pocket to pull out the aforementioned “smoke” and pushed open the door.

West – in the fading to black sky and silhouettes of cliffs and spires normally red and orange a few stars sparked their pinpoint light. In the east it was full night. The lighter flared too bright against the scattered parking lot lights, dazzling my vision for a few. I stood still, waiting until I could see again. It took only a few seconds and I began walking to the Jeep.

Another man resolved from the dark as he struggled to light a cigar. He nodded as we passed. I replied with a soft “Hello” and kept moving.

I wanted my own bit of dark to smolder in.
No, I wasn’t mad. I wasn’t pondering the ways of Man and Things. I wasn’t talking to god or looking for a place to pee.

I was, instead, staring to the sky and working out the very faint ribbon of the Milky Way. Too many stars to count as the wind carried the smoke from my mouth. The night was beautiful and brilliantly black as skies can only be in the desert.

I said a few words to the Universe, stripped the cigarette and made my way back through the locked door to DE.