Flight

On the gossamer mazes…and off wet pavements….

The blotted stars and the muted moon reflected their fragile gold...

Idle insects socialized around the chrome mist of the streetlight…in dizzying circles...

And from the intense darkness beneath came a chorus of invisible cicadas...

A muffled blast from the stereo next door made a white mass come to life on a slippery window sill…

Saucer eyes scanned all 360 degrees and took off in soundless flight…

The silhouetted figure that had been standing in a stupor against the wall had come back to life...

And was stumbling in into the pool of gloom that had accumulated in the alley...

Through the night’s unending rain…

With halting, faltering steps he was closing in…

Kicking a can out of the way, loudly breaking the atmosphere with shards of aluminium tyranny…

The spongy wooden boards of the stairs strained under his heavy booted feet…

There was a click at the door

And abruptly the music died…

The stillness that ensued was interrupted hours later…

With a shrill cry… stifled as soon as it left her mouth…

And then the owl returned to its perch again...

And kept watch over the clogged canal for movement…

Until dawn.